Regarding the controversy over the failure to prepare minutes at the meeting where the scale of medical school expansion was decided to be 2,000, the Minister and Vice Minister of Health and Welfare and the Minister and Vice Minister of Education were reported to the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (HOCI).
On the afternoon of the 7th, when the faculty meeting was held to amend the academic regulations related to the increase in the number of students at Pusan National University College of Medicine, medical students and professors held a picket protest at the university headquarters. [Image source=Yonhap News]
On the 7th, lawyer Lee Byung-chul of the law firm Chanjong and Jeong Geun-young, former representative of residents at Bundang CHA Hospital, held a press conference in front of the Government Complex Gwacheon and filed a complaint against Minister Cho Kyu-hong and Vice Minister Park Min-soo of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Minister Lee Ju-ho, Vice Minister Oh Seok-hwan, and Talent Policy Planning Officer Shim In-cheol of the Ministry of Education for dereliction of duty and destruction of public records. Lawyer Lee is serving as the legal representative of the Korea Association of Medical School Professors in other lawsuits related to the medical school expansion.
Lawyer Lee and others claimed that the failure to prepare minutes during the deliberation by the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee (Bojungsim) under the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the scale of medical school expansion to 2,000 constitutes dereliction of duty, and if the minutes were destroyed, it corresponds to concealment or destruction of public records.
They also pointed out that the Enrollment Quota Allocation Committee under the Ministry of Education, which discussed the distribution results of enrollment quotas for 40 medical schools nationwide, did not prepare minutes either, and that the Minister and Vice Minister of Education should also be held responsible.
Earlier, on the 30th of last month, the Seoul High Court requested the government to submit supporting materials and related minutes for the 2,000 expansion by the 10th, during the appellate hearing of the injunction application filed by medical students, professors, and residents seeking to suspend the effect of the decision to increase and allocate 2,000 medical school quotas.
On the same day, at a briefing by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH), the government stated, "In accordance with the Public Records Management Act, minutes are prepared and kept for the meetings of the Bojungsim and the Medical Personnel Expert Committee under Bojungsim, which are based on the Framework Act on Health and Medical Services," and added, "The government plans to submit the minutes as requested by the Seoul High Court."
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