[W Forum] Surgical Room CCTV Legislation, Issues Yet to Be Resolved

Shin Hyun-young, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Last November, I proposed a bill to install CCTV in operating rooms. This was in response to significant demands arising from the persistent issues of ghost surgeries and proxy surgeries that have not been eradicated in medical settings. Installing CCTV in operating rooms means monitoring the entire medical procedure performed on anesthetized patients and using the footage as evidence in potential future medical lawsuits. This is a sensitive topic that has caused sharp conflicts between the medical community and patient groups. However, there are still aspects that require more intense discussion before the bill passes the National Assembly in June.

The core issue of ghost surgeries and proxy surgeries stems from accumulated cases where the trust relationship between patients and doctors has been broken in the spaces where medical procedures take place. Both the government and the medical community bear some responsibility for neglecting illegal medical practices due to their lukewarm responses. Let us examine the current status of proxy surgeries. Of the ghost surgeries detected so far, 88.9% occurred in plastic surgery and orthopedic surgery departments. This indicates that these incidents were more frequent in non-essential medical fields such as cosmetic surgery rather than in essential medical areas. This insight also underscores the need to consider additional measures to proactively prevent proxy surgeries by understanding the essence of these incidents.

The time to decide whether to install CCTV at the entrance or inside the operating room is approaching. Currently, autonomous installation inside operating rooms in medical institutions is reported to be at 14%. In plastic surgery departments, 55% have already installed CCTV inside for purposes such as attracting patients and hospital promotion. Regarding emergency room CCTV, installation inside the examination room is recommended to protect both doctors and patients, and it is included as an evaluation criterion for emergency rooms. It is also worth considering disclosing information so that users can check in advance whether a medical institution has installed CCTV in the operating room when choosing a facility. Continuously accumulating experience with the use of operating room CCTV is necessary for the maturation of the system.

Consideration of the side effects of mandatory CCTV installation in operating rooms is also necessary. For example, there is currently a shortage of doctors in essential departments such as thoracic surgery, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology, which perform many surgeries on critically ill emergency patients. Since these areas deal with severe patients, doctors work under considerable stress, and even the best medical care may result in outcomes different from what was intended, increasing the likelihood of lawsuits. The shortage in essential medical departments is worsening year by year, causing deep concern for both the government and the medical community. Until groundbreaking support measures are established, the worsening supply of doctors is inevitable. Installing CCTV in operating rooms may have the negative consequence of providing an additional reason for doctors to avoid choosing these departments. Without sophisticated policy design to prevent essential critical surgeries and public healthcare in Korea from regressing further, there is a risk that patients, the public, and medical professionals will all suffer.

Ultimately, the direction of health and medical policy should be designed to enhance mutual trust between doctors and patients within the examination room. The operating room CCTV bill should be finalized as a measure that allows patients to receive safe treatment and doctors to provide the best care possible. I hope that a conclusion on this bill will be reached at the first subcommittee of the Health and Welfare Committee on the 23rd. I will also do my best to ensure that proper improvements are made legally and ethically so that both patients and doctors can be happy in the examination room.

Shin Hyun-young, Member of the National Assembly, The Democratic Party of Korea

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