Ahn Cheol-soo: "President Moon, Any Intention to Personally Intervene to Resolve Doctors' General Strike?"

"Typical Non-Communicative Administration... Immediate Cessation of Treasonous Acts Required"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, said on the 24th to President Moon Jae-in, “The greatest task given to the Republic of Korea right now is overcoming the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), and the withdrawal of the medical community’s strike is urgent,” adding, “Is there no intention for the president to personally intervene to resolve the doctors’ general strike issue?”

At the highest-level meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Ahn said, “How about the president personally visiting the Medical Association or inviting the president of the Medical Association and other leaders to the Blue House for dialogue?” and “I expect the president’s leadership in problem-solving.”

He pointed out, “Fundamentally, I cannot help but point out the inappropriateness of the announcement timing and the problems in the process regarding the government pushing policies without any communication efforts with doctors or public hearings,” adding, “Is it really helpful to the people to push policies that require more than 10 years to evaluate their effectiveness at this very moment? Isn’t it like throwing stones at generals from behind while the battle is in full swing?”

He continued, “The process is also full of problems. The government is pushing policies that bring major changes to the national medical system without proper public hearings or sufficient opinion gathering from stakeholders, and when there is opposition, it threatens with license suspensions or administrative orders. Watching this, I ask if it really has to be this way,” adding, “Isn’t this a typical oppressive and non-communicative administration? I hope that until the COVID-19 situation calms down, they immediately stop acts of betrayal that break the morale of the fighting warriors and sow discord between the public and medical staff.”

Ahn said, “I understand the government’s reason for wanting to increase medical school quotas. However, even now, a significant portion of local medical school quotas are filled by students from the metropolitan area, so increasing local medical school quotas and forcing local service for 10 years will not solve the problem,” adding, “It is a priority to establish high-quality public medical institutions in local areas, greatly expand equipment and facilities, and improve the treatment of medical staff. Also, adjusting the health insurance fees for specialties with a shortage of doctors, such as emergency medicine and surgery, is necessary to create an environment where doctors can apply to departments that are essential to the public.”

Regarding the second disaster relief fund, Ahn said, “It is most important to establish proper support measures so that those in difficulty can endure,” and warned, “We must be vigilant and keep guarding against the cunning populist idea and behavior of trying to distribute money again to the entire population by exploiting the psychology that ‘no one dislikes free money,’ as was done in the last general election.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.