Government: "We Will Respect the Agreement Including 'Reconsideration from the Beginning'... Urging Medical Professionals to Fulfill Their Duty" (Update)

Yoon Tae-ho, Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' Quarantine General Division, is holding a regular briefing on COVID-19 response at the Government Complex Sejong. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The government urged resident doctors, who have been continuing their collective strike in protest against the expansion of medical school quotas, to return to work, expressing its intention to respect the agreement reached between the ruling party and the medical community, including the 'reconsideration from the starting point' of the policy.

Son Young-rae, head of the Strategic Planning Team at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, said at a briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong on the 3rd, "The ruling party is currently in a situation of reaching an agreement with the medical community," and emphasized, "The government will respect the agreement as much as possible, and if an agreement is reached, it will make every effort to implement it."

In the political sphere as well, the possibility of reconsidering policies such as the expansion of medical school quotas and the establishment of public medical schools from the starting point has been left open, and efforts to persuade the medical community have begun. Earlier, on the 1st, Han Jeong-ae, chairperson of the Policy Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, met with Choi Dae-jip, president of the Korea Medical Association (KMA), and said, "We can discuss the policy completely from zero," and members of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee from the People Power Party also visited the Korean Intern Resident Association (Daejeonhyeop) and promised to reconsider medical policies from the starting point once the COVID-19 situation stabilizes.

Yoon Tae-ho, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters’ quarantine team, said to the resident doctors on the same day, "Not only the government but also senior medical professionals and the National Assembly are stepping forward to propose solutions and promise renegotiations," and added, "We hope medical personnel will fulfill their original mission for COVID-19 response and patients."

He also addressed medical students who canceled their practical exam for the national medical licensing examination, saying, "The government postponed the national medical licensing examination by one week at the request of various deans, professors, and senior medical professionals as well as the Association of Medical Schools and Graduate Medical Schools," and added, "We expect medical students to make a reasonable choice and hope many students will take the exam through re-registration." He urged deans and professors of medical schools to help students make reasonable choices.

Earlier, the government postponed the practical exam of the 85th national medical licensing examination for 2021, originally scheduled for the 1st, to the 8th, delaying it by one week.

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