Doctors’ group mustn’t misinterpret results

The government stall on its push for medical reform is lengthening. Doctors in the meantime are proclaiming their win, claiming that the governing People Power Party (PPP)’s landslide defeat in the April 10 parliamentary elections reflects voters’ opposition to the government plan to increase the enrollment quota for medical school schools. But that claim shows a self-serving bias.

The emergency committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) called the government to immediately withdraw its plan to raise the medical school admission quota and a package of proposals to enhance primary-care divisions of medicine, because the “governing party’s crushing defeat reflects a public judgement on the government.” Former KMA head Joo Soo-ho said that the PPP brought upon the sad election results for “enraging 140,000 doctors, 20,000 medical students and their families.”

President Yoon Suk Yeol and the government have been losing public confidence due to repeated appointment flops, habitual vetoes of legislative bills, and poor policy maneuvering, as seen in their ineffective battle against inflation and a former defense minister facing criminal charges. The president’s repeated vetoes certainly promoted public disgruntlement over his domineering and unilateral style. But the general public had not been divided about the medical reform. They were just concerned about the government’s rigid obsession with the quota increase by 2,000 without giving clear grounds in the number and its intimidating way of pressuring young doctors to return to work with administrative actions instead of trying to persuade them. Doctors are just feeding their egos as they believe that the election results were swayed by the medical reform scheme and public disapproval of the quota increase.

In the meantime, patients’ lives are in limbo due to the protracted void of trainee doctors. People are dying in ambulances as they cannot find emergency or surgical rooms to tend them. Doctors are merely opposed to the quota increase and do not offer any counterproposal to solve problems in the medical field. They are deluding themselves if they really think they have the public on their side. They must come to the negotiating table with a practical alternative solution. They cannot fool the public, as their demand for the outline to be re-discussed from scratch or for deferring the plan for a year is just their way to kill the plan for good.

The government also must show flexibility in their discussions with doctors. To bring them to the table, the government must first lift suspensions on doctors. At the same time, the government must bring representatives of patients and third-party experts to prevent possible behind-the-scene bargaining with doctors. The hard-won momentum to reform the medical sector must not be wasted no matter what.