As conflicts in the medical agreement have continued for over a year, the People Power Party emphasized on the 4th its commitment to working on the "Medical Accident Special Act." They expressed intentions to promote the long-desired "Legalization of Medical Accident Liability Relief" within the medical community and appealed for re-participation in the currently suspended government-medical agreement consultative body.
The leadership of the People Power Party, including emergency response committee chair Kweon Seong-dong, attended a discussion on "Improving the Training Environment of Residents and Expanding the Medical Malpractice Safety Net" held at the National Assembly that day and emphasized the need to find solutions for litigation risks and improved treatment for residents. In a situation where no exit has been found for the conflict between the medical community and the government, they stated their intention to listen to the demands of the medical community and reflect them in policy.
During the discussion, attendees agreed on the necessity of a medical litigation exemption. Since the inauguration of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the government has been promoting the enactment of the "Medical Accident Processing Special Act" aimed at relieving the legal risks faced by medical practitioners, which applies criminal punishment exemptions for medical accidents on the condition that all healthcare providers are insured. The special law minimizes criminal penalties for medical acts that are not intentional or negligent and serves as a "negotiation card" to alleviate resistance from the medical community against the government's policy of expanding medical school admissions.
The party leadership reiterated their commitment to reflecting measures for relieving the burden of medical accidents in policy. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader, said, "There is a need to legally protect the fear that physicians have regarding medical accidents," and emphasized, "As long as it is not a decisive negligence, we must provide protection through the system."
He urged for re-engagement in the suspended government-medical agreement consultative body to discuss solutions to the conflict. Kweon said, "The government and the ruling party have received significant distrust from medical associations regarding health reform issues, and communication is not progressing well. However, the government and the ruling party are committed to solving the issues of health reform and conflicts with the medical community," and added, "We have a strong will to resolve this issue through dialogue, so it would be great if we could engage in conversations."
The government-medical agreement consultative body was established on Nov. 11 of last year to resolve long-standing conflicts and discuss health reform measures. While the consultative body found some common ground, such as the formation of a medical workforce supply forecasting committee and measures to guarantee the autonomy of the Korea Accreditation Institute of Medical Education, it failed to narrow disagreements over increasing medical school admissions, leading to its suspension of activities on Dec. 1 of last year. Kweon expressed a willingness to resume discussions and requested residents to return to the field while promoting measures such as "Training Exemptions" and "Postponement of Military Enlistment," but the consultative body remains suspended.
The discussion also addressed issues regarding excessive working hours and other solutions related to improving the training environment.
Chair Kweon noted, "Residents are key talents responsible for the future of South Korea. It is critically important to create an environment where residents can grow stably for the sustainability of the healthcare system," and emphasized, "We must institutionally support the training of residents so that it becomes a high-quality and systematic educational process rather than just a job."
Representative Seo Myung-ok, who hosted the discussion, stated plans to propose legislation based on the resolutions made during the meeting. It is reported that they are considering measures that could acknowledge exceptions to liability regarding medical accidents that occur during training.