Cancer Patient Group: "Medical Reform Special Committee Is 'Empty Talk'... Patient Safety Measures Must Come First"

Statement from the Korea Cancer Patient Rights Council

Cancer patient groups criticized the launch of the Presidential Commission on Medical Reform (Special Committee) and raised their voices demanding the government to establish patient safety measures.

Kim Sung-joo, Representative of the Korea Cancer Patient Rights Association. [Photo by Yonhap News]

The Korea Cancer Patient Rights Council stated in a press release on the 26th, "Patients who are in urgent need have nowhere to go, yet the Special Committee is trying to conduct policy discussions far removed from the current situation," adding, "What meaning does the Special Committee have if it cannot resolve the standoff between medical professionals and the government?"

They continued, "Cancer patients and their families are exhausted due to the resignation of residents and medical school professors, followed by the 'weekly shutdown of university hospitals,'" and added, "In this serious situation, the government formed the Special Committee without the direct stakeholders in the medical community, filling it only with members favorable to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s agenda, planning to continue empty discussions."

They also argued that establishing patient safety measures should be the priority. They said, "Discussions should focus on stopping the 'shutdowns' at each hospital rather than discussing improvements to the resident training environment that will not return anytime soon," and "The government should concentrate on creating patient protection policies instead of the useless Special Committee."

Furthermore, they stated, "Monitoring the current state of medical collapse and establishing countermeasures as patient safety measures is a prerequisite," adding, "Immediate disclosure of the list of resigning frontline professors should be made so that patients can plan their treatments, and ways to resolve the situation must be found."

Earlier, the government launched the Special Committee the day before without the participation of medical groups such as the Korean Medical Association and the Korean Intern Resident Association.

Kim Seong-ju, head of the Korea Cancer Patient Rights Council, said, "If patients want to transfer hospitals or plan future treatments, they need to know the resignation schedules of professors. How can patients be expected to cope if suddenly told that 'treatment has been suspended'?" He urged, "The Ministry of Health and Welfare should not say 'it’s a hospital issue, so we don’t know.' If public disclosure is difficult, at least individual patients should be informed through official notices."

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