Rational solutions, not slander, matter

"I cannot send my son alone to the negotiating table since he returned home bleeding after being beaten by bullies at school,” wrote doctor Chung Jin-haeng, who serves as an adviser on the emergency committee of Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital. He even encouraged parents to meet the parents of the bullies.

The message came from his concerns about Park Dan — the representative of the Korea Intern Resident Association (KIRA) who met with President Yoon Suk Yeol last week over the ongoing walkout by trainee doctors to protest the government’s plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota — and medical students.

But the analogy helps neither. Calling the president the “bully boy’s parent” is also unbecoming. Noh Hwan-kyu, former head of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), wrote that a leader from a humanities background is ruining the country that was revived by math, science and engineer majors.

Inpatients live in fear after over 10,000 trainee doctors deserted them after the government’s announcement of a plan to raise the enrollment quota by 2,000 over the next five years. President Yoon and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo promised to take a “flexible” approach to open up room for negotiations. But veteran doctors are making matters worse with their improper remarks instead of using the momentum to bring junior doctors and medical students back to their hospitals and schools.

Park, the representative of the KIRA, wrote, “There is no future for Korean medicine” after meeting with the president. But the presidential office promised to “respect” trainee doctors’ opinions about addressing a shortage of doctors. The medical community must sustain the mood for dialogue so that trainee doctors and medical students can return as soon as possible. But Lim Hyun-taek, the newly elected KMA president, called Park “the enemy from within.” Some are even calling for Park’s impeachment.

The government has been loosening its rigid insistence on 2,000. The medical community must come up with a consensus on a number it can compromise with. The government and medical representatives must discuss the quota increase and working conditions for trainee doctors and easing of legal risks.

But the medical community shows little effort to seek progress. The positions of the KMA, leaders of doctors’ groups, trainee doctors and medical school students all differ. The veteran physicians who claim to be the “parents” of trainee doctors must present workable solutions if they really care for junior doctors and medical students. They must try to save their students facing suspension as well as patients through a proactive engagement in negotiation with the government.