Minister Jung Eunkyung Apologizes to Patients and Families for Inconvenience During 1.5 Years of Medical-Government Conflict

On-site Visit to Regional Patient Safety Center
and Meeting with Patient and Consumer Groups

Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eunkyung apologized, saying, "I sincerely apologize to the public and patients who have experienced significant anxiety and inconvenience due to the conflict between the medical community and the government persisting for a year and a half."

Jeong Eunkyung, Minister of Health and Welfare, is speaking at the 'Patient and Consumer Group On-site Meeting' held on the 7th at Samsung Life Ilwon Station Building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

On the afternoon of August 7, Minister Jeong visited the Regional Patient Safety Center at Samsung Medical Center to review the current status of patient safety policy implementation and held a meeting to listen to the opinions of patient and consumer groups.

At the meeting, Minister Jeong stated, "I sincerely apologize to the public and patients who have experienced significant anxiety and inconvenience as the conflict between the medical community and the government has continued for a year and a half," and added, "Based on restoring trust with the public and the medical community, we will firmly strengthen regional, essential, and public healthcare."

She continued, "We will establish legal and institutional foundations to strengthen patient safety and rights, and ensure that the rights to know and to receive safe medical care are realized in practice," adding, "We will listen to the voices of the public and closely communicate and cooperate with the medical field to establish a safe and trustworthy healthcare system."

She also emphasized her commitment to doing her utmost to create healthcare reform measures centered on the public. Minister Jeong explained, "The government's healthcare policies have accumulated and become complex over time, making them difficult to resolve easily. There are also issues such as rapidly increasing medical expenses due to super-aging, as well as unreasonable systems like non-reimbursed services and indemnity insurance. To comprehensively address these issues, we plan to establish a Healthcare Reform Promotion Committee and an Innovation Committee, in which the public, healthcare professionals, and various experts will participate to develop healthcare reform measures."

In response, patient and consumer groups requested, "Please work to establish a healthcare utilization system centered on patients," and also expressed the opinion that "there is a need for a foundation to investigate and support damage caused by medical service gaps, as well as to strengthen patient safety and rights."