President Yoon Suk Yeol agreed to “respect” the position of trainee doctors on the government’s push for medical reform as he met with one of their leaders Thursday, the presidential office said.
Yoon met with Park Dan, the head of an emergency committee at the Korea Intern Resident Association, for 2 hours and 20 minutes at the presidential office to discuss the ongoing standoff between the government and doctors over the medical reform plans, presidential spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung said in a written briefing.
It was their first meeting since trainee doctors left their worksites on Feb. 20 to protest the government’s plan to increase medical school admissions by 2,000 starting next year.
“The president listened attentively to Chairman Park Dan regarding the problems of the current medical system,” Kim said, noting the two exchanged views on how to improve the treatment and working conditions of trainee doctors.
“The president agreed to respect the position of trainee doctors when discussing medical refor
m, including an increase in doctors, with the medical community in the future,” she said.
Park announced the meeting in an internal notice to the association earlier in the day, saying a meeting with the president is “worth trying as we can deliver the stance of the trainee doctors to Yoon” ahead of the April 10 general elections.
“I believe the current situation might have been initiated by the president’s determination,” Park said.
Park said he would demand Yoon scrap the plan to hike the number of medical students.
About 12,000 junior doctors have been on strike in the form of mass resignations since Feb. 20 in protest of the plan for an addition of 2,000 medical school seats per year. Currently, the annual quota is 3,058.
Since earlier this week, Yoon’s office has said it is open to talks with junior doctors, but prospects for a breakthrough over the standoff remain uncertain as the government has shown little sign of reducing the size of the increased medical school admission quotas.
Adding to the
complexity over the standoff, the government has already allocated the admission quotas to universities.
In a national address on Monday, Yoon called on doctors to come up with a “unified proposal” on the appropriate increase in medical school admissions, saying the government will be open to talks though it believes a hike of 2,000 is the minimum.
The reform plan has emerged as a hot-button issue for next week’s parliamentary elections, with the ruling People Power Party aiming to regain a majority in the National Assembly.
Source: Yonhap News Agency