President Yoon: "Appropriate Measures for Doctors Who Neglected Responsibility... Medical Reform Must Be Completed"

President Yoon Suk-yeol is speaking at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting addressing the medical professionals' collective action, held on the 6th at the Central Disaster and Safety Situation Room in the Government Complex Sejong, Sejong Special Self-Governing City.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

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President Yoon Suk-yeol stated on the 6th, "While taking appropriate measures against doctors who neglect their responsibility for the lives and safety of the people, we will also strengthen the emergency medical system to fill their gaps and minimize the damage to the public." He strongly indicated that despite opposition from the medical community, he is determined to complete medical reform.

On the same day, President Yoon personally presided over the 'Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) meeting on doctors' collective action' at the Government Complex Sejong, checking the emergency medical system in response to the doctors' collective action and discussing key medical reform tasks.

This was the first time this year that President Yoon directly chaired a CDSCH meeting. It is interpreted as showing his strong will to push forward medical reform while ordering all ministries to unite in responding to illegal collective actions.

President Yoon first expressed his gratitude to the medical staff who stayed by patients' sides and to the public who cooperated and supported with mature civic awareness amid the situation where patients' lives are threatened and public inconvenience is increasing due to the doctors' collective action continuing for more than half a month.

In particular, President Yoon raised his voice, saying, "It is abnormal that the public has to worry because residents in training have left, and a national emergency system must be activated. This clearly proves that increasing the number of doctors is an urgent and important task."

He reiterated the severe shortage of doctors compared to the surge in medical demand and emphasized the need for an increase. President Yoon said, "Since the introduction of health insurance in 1977, South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased 116 times, and national medical expenses have increased 511 times, but during this period, the number of doctors has only increased sevenfold." He explained that during the same period, the medical school quota increased only 2.2 times from 1,380 to 3,058, indicating a significant shortage of doctors compared to the surge in medical demand.

Furthermore, President Yoon mentioned, "The medical reform the government is pursuing is based on expanding doctor training while implementing an essential medical package to ensure that the increased number of doctors work in regional and essential medical fields."

President Yoon Suk-yeol is presiding over the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting addressing the medical professionals' collective action at the Central Disaster and Safety Situation Room in the Government Complex Sejong, Sejong Special Self-Governing City, on the 6th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

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Regarding claims from some in the medical community that rapid increases would degrade the quality of medical education, he actively refuted these as unfounded by presenting specific statistics and objective evidence. He noted that the student quota per school in advanced countries is 243 in Germany, 221 in the UK, and 146 in the US, whereas in South Korea, it is relatively low at about 77. In terms of faculty, the current student quota per full-time professor is only 1.6 on average, which is ample compared to the legal standard of 8, he added.

President Yoon promised not to spare investment and support to elevate the capabilities of medical schools to global standards and pledged to actively accept recommendations from the medical community during this process.

He also announced plans to correct the existing distorted hospital operation structure in which large hospitals have excessively relied on the sacrifice of young residents, and to fundamentally reform the medical delivery system through restructuring the workforce centered on specialists and actively utilizing skilled clinical support nurses.

President Yoon emphasized, "While taking appropriate measures against doctors who neglect their responsibility for the lives and safety of the people, we will strengthen the emergency medical system to fill their gaps and minimize the damage to the public." To this end, pilot projects for clinical support nurses will be implemented, public health doctors and military doctors will be deployed, and support for personnel expenses for additional new hires will be provided.

He stressed that by expanding incentives when so-called 'Big 5' hospitals focus on severe patients and transfer non-severe patients to regional general and specialized hospitals, the distorted medical delivery system that has been neglected will be normalized.

Following this, President Yoon received reports from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Education, and others on the trends and responses to the medical community's collective action, plans to strengthen essential medical health insurance compensation, emergency medical operation status by local governments, medical school quota increase applications, and follow-up plans. He then led discussions on the operation of emergency medical systems and emergency transport systems in cities and provinces.

At the CDSCH meeting that day, the government was represented by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho, and officials from 13 ministries and agencies. Seventeen provincial governors attended from local governments, and from the Presidential Office, Secretary General Lee Kwan-seop, Policy Chief Sung Tae-yoon, Senior Secretary for Social Affairs Jang Sang-yoon, Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Han Oh-seop, Senior Secretary for Public Relations Lee Do-woon, and Senior Secretary for Science and Technology Park Sang-wook were present.

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