Residents Meet Ruling Party Lawmakers: "Training Environment Must Improve, Judicial Risks Over Medical Accidents Should Be Mitigated"

Meeting Between the Korean Intern Resident Association and Ruling Party Lawmakers of the Health and Welfare Committee

The Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), a group representing medical residents, emphasized the need to improve the training environment for residents and to mitigate the judicial risks associated with medical accidents in order to rebuild critical and essential medical care, during a meeting with ruling party lawmakers from the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee.

Yonhap News

At a meeting between the Health and Welfare Committee and residents held at the main building of the National Assembly in Yeouido on July 14, KIRA identified the causes of low application and completion rates among residents in critical and essential medical specialties as: ▲ a training environment that prioritizes work over education, and ▲ judicial risks related to medical accidents.

The meeting was attended by Park Jumin, chair of the Health and Welfare Committee, as well as committee members from the Democratic Party of Korea and the Rebuilding Korea Party. Representing KIRA were Han Sungjon, chair of the emergency response committee, and other committee members.

Kim Jaeyeon, a member of the emergency response committee who presented on improving the resident training environment, stated, "Residents are both trainees and are placed in special working conditions, so they are governed by a special law for residents rather than labor law." Kim added, "However, each resident is responsible for an excessive number of patients, and the high patient load leads to repetitive tasks such as simple prescriptions and procedures."

Kim further emphasized, "When the actual training environment diverges from what was expected, residents lose interest and drop out. It is necessary to address this by establishing standardized work guidelines."

Park Kyungsoo, another emergency response committee member, presented on the need to reduce the legal burden related to medical accidents. Park cited cases where doctors were sued for medical accidents or insufficient explanations about medications, saying, "Regardless of whether there is actual malpractice, doctors inevitably face legal issues, and to avoid these, they are forced to practice defensive and passive medicine. If they could be freed from legal liability, the situation would change."

Park added, "If judicial risks are reduced, it will be possible to provide more proactive and responsible care, and patients will receive better treatment, which will be beneficial in the long run."

Before the presentations, Chair Park remarked in his opening statement, "The biggest problem during the previous conflicts was the breakdown of trust and the cessation of dialogue. I hope that by continuing official discussions, we can strengthen and expand our relationships of trust."

Chair Han also stated, "Improving the resident training environment and mitigating medical environment risks will become important cornerstones for Korean healthcare. We will continue to discuss and deliberate together toward the shared goal of better healthcare for both patients and the medical community."