Lee Sujin "Strict Punishment for Doctors Refusing Treatment, Medical School Quotas Must Be Expanded"

Lee Su-jin, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Proportional Representative).
/Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Lee Sujin, a nurse-turned-lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea (proportional representation), criticized the agreement reached on the 4th between the party and the Korean Medical Association (KMA) to reconsider the government’s medical policies from scratch, saying, "It is merely a trade-off of expanding medical school quotas, establishing public medical schools, and introducing regional doctor systems in exchange for doctors returning to practice."

In a post on her Facebook on the same day, Rep. Lee said, "When those in power use their power as a weapon to threaten the public, and when they take the irreplaceable lives of the people hostage through illegal collective actions, what should politics do and where should it stand at the starting point?"

Rep. Lee has a background as a nurse and has served as the chairperson of the Yonsei Medical Center Labor Union, chairperson of the National Medical Industry Labor Union Federation, and a member of the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee.

She further pointed out, "The harsh medical reality in rural areas where people have to travel for hours due to the lack of even a single proper hospital, the oversupply of profitable medical specialties and the scarcity of doctors in essential medical fields, the contradiction of medical school professors who advocated for expanding medical school quotas and establishing public medical schools during the Park Geun-hye administration but opposed it under the Moon Jae-in government?this is the starting point where we must stand."

She emphasized, "The National Assembly should guarantee a consultative body that includes the public, not just a medical-government consultative body," adding, "Patients, all medical personnel, civic groups, and experts should all participate to create measures to strengthen medical publicness for the entire nation, not for the interests of a small power group."

Rep. Lee also stated, "The medical school quota must be expanded without fail. It should be expanded beyond the scale proposed by the government," and added, "The regional doctor system should be introduced with actual mandatory regional service of at least 10 years. Establishing public medical schools should strengthen essential public medical sectors."

She further said, "All acts of planning, directing, and participating in doctors’ illegal collective refusal to provide medical services must be severely punished, and compensation claims should be made for damages."

On the morning of the 4th, Han Jeong-ae, the Policy Committee Chair of the Democratic Party of Korea (right), and Choi Dae-jip, the President of the Korea Medical Association, are seen fist-bumping after signing an agreement to implement a policy pact at the Democratic Party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. The pact includes reviewing the expansion of medical school quotas and the establishment of public medical schools./Photo by Yonhap News

Meanwhile, the government, ruling party, and the KMA have agreed to reconsider the government’s medical policies, including expanding medical school quotas and establishing public medical schools, from scratch after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

On the morning of the same day around 10 a.m., Democratic Party Policy Committee Chairperson Han Jeong-ae and KMA President Choi Dae-jib officially signed a policy agreement implementation statement including this content at the Democratic Party headquarters in Yeouido.

President Choi said, "The unilateral enforcement of government policies caused great confusion among the KMA’s 130,000 members. I regret that if sufficient prior consultations had been conducted before pushing the policies, such a major social confusion might have been avoided," adding, "Although policy withdrawal is not included in the agreement, I think 'reconsideration from scratch after withdrawal' and 'reconsideration from scratch after suspension' essentially mean the same thing, so this is a relatively well-made agreement."

Although some opposition has reportedly been expressed by the Emergency Committee of the Korean Intern Resident Association and others, the dramatic agreement between the government, ruling party, and KMA is expected to end the resident doctors’ strike that has lasted about half a month since the 21st of last month.