Newly elected doctors' group chief urges Yoon to 'directly' talk with trainees

Social Affairs

Published: 27 Mar. 2024, 19:10 Updated: 27 Mar. 2024, 19:46

Newly elected doctors' group chief urges Yoon to 'directly' talk with trainees

Lim Hyun-taek, president-elect of the Korea Medical Association, addresses his victory speech on Tuesday at the headquarters of the association in Yongsan District, central Seoul. His term will begin in May. [NEWS1]

The country’s largest doctors’ group has elected a new leader who urged President Yoon Suk Yeol to “directly participate in talks with junior doctors to convince them to return.”

The Korea Medical Association (KMA) on Tuesday elected as its president Lim Hyun-taek, who has previously cited the country’s low birthrate as the main reason why the government should downsize its current plan to increase annual medical recruitment by 2,000 slots.

KMA officials blamed differences between the doctors and the government for the lack of breakthrough in the weekslong strike by junior doctors.

In a briefing on Wednesday, Kim Taek-woo, chief of the emergency committee of the KMA, said that despite several meetings over the past week, "no real progress" has been made, as both sides merely “reaffirmed the gap between their positions.”

Kim said that the government should devise a measure to prompt junior doctors to return from the walkout in order to resolve the current impasse.

The Health Ministry on Wednesday condemned Lim’s warning of a possible “all-out strike” by doctors, saying that such action would “flout the law.”

“The government’s principle of enforcing punishment for legal violations remains unchanged," Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said.

Park also said that the government is “trying to resume talks with the medical sector” and that the government-aligned People Power Party (PPP) and Yoon administration “are discussing ‘lenient’ ways” to penalize junior doctors disobeying the government’s back-to-work order.

A photo shared by Lim Hyun-taek, president-elect at the Korea Medical Association, shows Lim being restrained by bodyguards at a presidential event last month in Gyeonggi. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Shortly after his election on Tuesday evening, Lim warned the government that “any harm inflicted on junior doctors, medical students and medical professors in the form of license suspensions, criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits will result in a general strike.”

Lim also demanded an apology from President Yoon before resuming talks with the government and called on Yoon to sack both Park and current Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong.

Lim added that the PPP’s satellite party, the People Future Party, should cancel its nomination of Ahn Sang-hoon, a former senior presidential secretary for social affairs who was involved in planning the 2,000-seat increase in the annual medical school admissions quota.

Lim is the current president of the Korean Pediatric Association. He claimed he was physically silenced by the presidential security guards last month during a town hall meeting at the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

A military physician wearing a military uniform and a doctor's gown walks inside a general hospital in Daegu on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Amid the ongoing spat between the medical sector and the government, the presidential office on Wednesday invited medical professionals to shape next year’s budget for health care policies.

“As the government’s budget plan is due to be submitted to the Finance Ministry by the end of May, the upcoming two months will be the most critical time for outlining next year’s expenditure,” said Sung Tae-yoon, the presidential director of national policy, in a briefing on Wednesday.

“The government hopes that medical professionals will actively participate in specifying how and where the government should spend money to support essential health care sectors,” Sung said.

As of Wednesday, 413 state-employed medical professionals — including military doctors — have been helping treat civilian patients at general hospitals, which have been crippled by the junior doctors’ walkout.

Some 200 professionals started patient care on Wednesday after finishing a two-day training course. The government dispatched them on Monday.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]