Medical School Faculty Group Urges President and Residents to "Engage in Unconditional Dialogue"

"The Only Person Who Can Resolve the Current Situation Is the President"
Meet and Talk Without Any Conditions

The nationwide association of medical school professors demanded unconditional dialogue with President Yoon Seok-yeol and the resident doctors' association.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the afternoon of the 2nd, Cho Yoon-jung, the publicity committee chair of the National Association of Medical School Professors (Jeonui Gyohyeop), said at a briefing, “I ask Park Dan, the representative of the Korean Intern and Resident Association (Daejeonhyeop), to meet without any conditions if President Yoon Seok-yeol invites you, whether you like him or not. He is the head of the executive branch of our country.” She added, “Anyone can make mistakes if their passion is excessive, and not everyone lives like doctors, who weigh evidence and possibilities and judge whether something is right or wrong. Just acknowledging the president’s passion and sincerity could be enough to start a dialogue.”

Cho appealed to President Yoon, saying, “Please extend your arms and shoulders first to the young people and embrace even one representative of the 13,000 resident doctors who have left the field for just five minutes.” She emphasized, “The only person who can resolve this current impasse in Korea is the president.” Furthermore, Cho added, “I hope the meeting between the president and Representative Park Dan will not be politically interpreted.”

Meanwhile, the National Association of Medical School Professors did not issue an official statement regarding the president’s address on the 1st. However, in response to the Blue House’s remark that “the figure of 2,000 is not an absolute number, and if it is to be reduced, the medical community must present a unified plan,” they said, “It is difficult to say that a unified plan is being prepared. More importantly, we need to prepare according to an evaluation system that assesses how many students each medical school can teach and listen to the opinions of frontline medical staff.”

They added, “The number 2,000 is just a ‘plan.’ The evaluation agency will assess the facilities, equipment, and human resources at each university and then make a final decision. We are not sure how meaningful it is to discuss this number. It’s not that we have a policy of ‘not responding,’ but rather we question whether it is necessary to discuss it at all.”

Regarding the president’s mention of special accounts for essential medical care and support for medical fields outside of health insurance finances, they said, “Stakeholders in the medical system include the public and the government, but so far, only the medical community has been forced to bear obligations. Securing separate funding is the government’s responsibility.”

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