Welfare Committee: "Medical School Expansion to Be Addressed in the National Assembly"... Meeting with Seoul National University Hospital and Emergency Committee

"Request for Witness Appearance if Minister and Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Absent from Full Meeting on the 19th"

Opposition lawmakers belonging to the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee held consecutive meetings on the 16th with the Seoul National University Hospital Emergency Response Committee and the hospital administration, one day before the indefinite strike by Seoul National University College of Medicine and hospital staff.

The Emergency Response Committee stated, "Our consolidated position is that the government should cancel administrative measures against resident doctors, establish a permanent medical-government consultative body, and discuss the medical school quota with the medical community," Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Seon-woo, the committee's secretary, told reporters after the meeting.

Members of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee are moving to attend the "On-site Meeting between the Welfare Committee and Seoul National University Professors' Emergency Committee and Executive Team" held on the morning of the 16th at Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

In response, Park Joo-min, the Democratic Party's Health and Welfare Committee chair, expressed "principled support for the formation of the medical-government consultative body," and Kang added that they also agreed that the government should discuss the medical school quota with the medical community.

Kang explained that the hospital administration, including Director Kim Young-tae, did not have significantly different views from the Emergency Response Committee.

The Emergency Response Committee requested that the National Assembly thoroughly examine the various issues in the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's process of increasing medical school quotas, and Chair Park responded positively, Kang said.

Earlier, the Health and Welfare Committee had requested the attendance of Minister Cho Kyu-hong of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and First and Second Vice Ministers Lee Ki-il and Park Min-soo at the plenary session on the 19th to address problems in the medical school quota increase process and the collective strike situation.

Kang said, "I think the Minister and Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Health and Welfare probably will not attend the meeting on the 19th," adding, "If they do not attend, we plan to request their attendance again as witnesses."

He explained, "Previously, the attendance request was for heads of standing committees, but witness attendance can be requested through a hearing," and "the scope of those requested to attend may also be expanded."

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