[Reporter’s Notebook] Medical Crisis: Only Stubbornness Remains Between the Medical Community and the Government

"We will dispatch 166 military doctors and public health doctors." (March 11)

"We will dispatch an additional 200 military doctors and public health doctors." (March 22)

"We will extend the dispatch of military doctors and public health doctors by one month." (April 4)

On the 49th day since the medical crisis triggered by the departure of residents, the government holds daily meetings of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and the Central Accident Response Headquarters to respond to the medical vacuum, but it feels like all available cards have been used. Many of the recent measures, such as increasing fees for essential medical services, expanding telemedicine, and increasing the number of Physician Assistant (PA) nurses, are included in the four essential medical packages announced on February 1. Although they are in a situation where they have to come up with measures by adjusting only the numbers in the same content, the 'reconsideration of 2,000 medical school admissions' remains an untouchable area.

The medical community, which has left patients' sides, is falling into internal conflict. The Korean Medical Association (KMA) Emergency Committee responded to the government's proposal for dialogue and said they would hold a joint press conference with medical school faculty groups, residents, and medical students after the general election, but the hardliners, newly appointed KMA President Im Hyun-taek and Park Dan, Emergency Committee Chair of the Korean Intern Resident Association, put a stop to it. Meanwhile, the voices of the hardliners continue to grow louder. Both the government, which says "We will not repeat nine defeats after nine fights," and the medical community, which says "The government cannot defeat doctors," see medical reform only as a battle to determine victory or defeat and seem unwilling to take a step back.

On the 11th, as collective actions by doctors centered around residents continue, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo visited Myeongji St. Mary's Hospital, a secondary general hospital in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, and held a meeting with the medical staff. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Tertiary hospitals are running deficits of hundreds of billions of won, and medical school professors are enduring exhaustion on the verge of collapse while watching the government and medical organizations. However, the ones showing the greatest patience and waiting for medical-government dialogue are the patients and the public. Although there may be a winner and loser between the government, which insists on '2,000 medical school admissions,' and the doctors' group, which insists on 'complete cancellation,' both sides are becoming losers in the eyes of the public. A man in his 40s, whose father had been battling illness for a long time after the medical vacuum crisis and recently passed away, cried, saying, "Both the government and doctors killed my father."

The medical community must hold a joint press conference after the general election and begin negotiations with the government, as announced by the KMA Emergency Committee on the 8th. If this is canceled due to internal conflicts within the medical community, it will cause irreparable harm to the public and patients. The government must also take a step back and accept whatever unified proposal the medical community presents as a topic for dialogue. If both sides continue to butt heads stubbornly, saying "We will not lose," patients and the public will have nowhere to turn.