Message Requesting Dialogue with Residents Following Nationwide Address
Jeonui Association Responds Positively to 'Yoon-Residents Representative Dialogue' Request
The Presidential Office stated on the 2nd, "President Yoon Seok-yeol wants to meet directly with the residents, who are the main participants in the collective action, despite the many medical organizations."
The Presidential Office spokesperson's office said in a press release that afternoon, "The Presidential Office is always open to the public." The intention is for President Yoon to listen directly to the demands of the residents, who are at the forefront of the medical field, and to resolve them in order to complete medical reform.
In particular, the Presidential Office's response to the 'meeting between President Yoon and representatives of the residents' requested by the Korean Association of Medical School Professors (Jeonui Gyohyeop) is interpreted as a step further than the position announced in the public address the day before.
Cho Yoon-jung, the public relations officer of Jeonui Gyohyeop, said at a briefing that afternoon, "I ask Park Dan, the representative of the Korean Intern and Resident Association (Daejeonhyeop), to meet without any conditions if President Yoon invites him, whether he likes it or not, as he is the head of the executive branch of our country."
She appealed to President Yoon, saying, "Please extend your arms and shoulders first to the young people and embrace even one representative of the 13,000 residents who have left the field for just five minutes."
On the same day, President Yoon chaired a follow-up meeting to check measures after the 'Social Sector' livelihood discussion under the theme of 'A government that takes care of people's livelihoods until problems are resolved' at the Government Complex Sejong, stating, "Although we are currently facing difficulties due to the collective action of some doctors, we will definitely achieve medical reform for the people."
Since the public address the day before, President Yoon has shifted his stance from insisting on increasing medical school quotas by 2,000 to saying that if medical organizations bring a unified plan based on scientific and rational grounds, the government policy can be changed. He also said, "I have already proposed the establishment of a presidential special committee for medical reform," and extended a hand by saying, "It would be good to form a social consultative body for medical reform involving the public, the medical community, and the government."
Additionally, President Yoon has recently been visiting hospitals directly to gather opinions on what policies are needed in the medical field. The day before, he visited Yuseong Sun Hospital, a secondary hospital in the Daejeon area, met with medical staff, and urged them to actively express their opinions by saying, "Please tell us what the government should support."
Seong Tae-yoon, the director of policy at the Presidential Office, also appeared on KBS the previous afternoon and explained the government's efforts, saying, "The government is not fixated on the number 2,000 and can change government policy in a better direction if better opinions and rational grounds, including the scale of medical school quota increase, are presented." He added, "We have been making various efforts to communicate with residents who have left the field by sending text messages, contacting through third parties, and waiting with dates and places set."
On the 1st, amid the prolonged medical-government conflict over the plan to increase medical school admissions by 2,000 students, citizens at Seoul Station in Jung-gu, Seoul, are watching President Yoon Seok-yeol's national address regarding healthcare reform. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
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