“Isn’t the situation too dire to wait until the medical community participates to some extent? Even if many medical organizations do not participate, the ruling and opposition party consultative body should be launched before Chuseok.”
People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon met with reporters after visiting the emergency room of Yangsan Busan National University Hospital in Gyeongnam Province on the 11th and said, “If it is difficult to reach a conclusion that the medical group will come in and accept it, they can withdraw.” This is interpreted as expressing the expectation that other major medical groups will also take action if some medical groups sit at the negotiating table and begin to state their opinions, and expressing the intention to promote a bipartisan consultative body with the participation of the medical community before the Chuseok holiday. A People Power Party leadership official said, “You have to roll snow to make a snowball. When a snowball gathers, it can make a snowman.”
One representative emphasized, “We have no intention of limiting the number of medical organizations (to participate),” and “We are just coming here to restore the broken trust and start a dialogue. Just by starting a dialogue, the people will have hope that the problem will be solved.” It is interpreted that there was concern that if the council is not launched before Chuseok, when emergency room demand is high, the momentum of the council he proposed will be weakened and public opinion criticizing the ruling party for the medical vacuum will grow even stronger.
Representative Han is scheduled to preside over an emergency high-ranking ruling and opposition party consultation meeting at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 12th to discuss the formation of a consultative body between the ruling and opposition parties. When asked that day, “The government says that it is impossible to revise the increase in the 2025 school year,” Representative Han emphasized once again that “there is no need to restrict the agenda and this is an issue that can be discussed,” and that “if we discuss it only after a certain period of time and there is absolutely no time for it, we will not be able to start the consultative body between the ruling and opposition parties that was created with difficulty.” There are also predictions that the ruling and opposition parties will request that the government be more open to the participation of the medical community at the ruling and opposition party consultation meeting. It has been reported that ahead of the ruling and opposition party consultation meeting, People Power Party Policy Committee Chairman Kim Sang-hoon and other party leaders will meet with medical groups in the morning to collect their demands and then convey their position to the government.
The People Power Party has decided to push for a ‘legislative package’ that exempts or reduces sentences for accidents that occur in high-risk essential medical care, such as emergency and childbirth, which is a long-standing wish of the medical community. The package will also include reducing the current maximum weekly working hours of residents, which is 88 hours, and increasing the allowance for residents in essential subjects from the current 1 million won per month.
The government is reportedly considering a plan for Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to participate in the consultative body. The presidential office and the government are also known to be in contact with the medical community behind the scenes. However, they have also reaffirmed their position that it is impossible to adjust the medical school quota for the 2025 school year as requested by medical groups. A high-ranking official in the presidential office said in a phone call with our newspaper, “We can listen to what the groups are saying at the dialogue table, but it cannot be a formal negotiation agenda.”
The Democratic Party of Korea continued the tug-of-war by presenting the “three demands” to the government and ruling party in order to form a bipartisan consultative body: △ leaving open the possibility of discussing the 2025 medical school enrollment quota, △ reasonably estimating the 2026 enrollment quota, and △ the president’s apology and the holding of the vice minister of Health and Welfare accountable.
Reporter Kim Jun-il [email protected]
Reporter Shin Na-ri [email protected]
Reporter Lee Ji-woon [email protected]
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2024-09-11 17:21:42