The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said on the 18th that it determined it was discrimination for a basic local government to exclude diagnoses issued by Korean medicine clinics and Korean medicine hospitals from valid medical certificates when screening eligible users of special transportation for people with transportation challenges.
Doctor A, a Korean medicine doctor running a Korean medicine clinic in the local government in question, issued a medical certificate in May last year to a patient seeking to use the special transportation service. However, during the review, the local government did not recognize the certificate issued by the Korean medicine clinic as valid material.
A said to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that, under the Medical Service Act, Korean medicine doctors are also medical professionals, and excluding certificates issued by Korean medicine clinics constitutes unfair discrimination against Korean medicine doctors.
The local government said that limiting the scope of medical institutions that can diagnose "people who temporarily use wheelchairs and have difficulty using public transportation," who are eligible for special transportation, was an unavoidable operational measure considering limited budgets and staffing conditions.
It also explained that because the Ministry of Health and Welfare notice specifying the criteria for determining mobility impairments does not state that Korean medicine doctors can make disability determinations, Korean medicine clinics and Korean medicine hospitals were excluded from the medical institutions subject to review.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Equal Opportunity Committee determined this was discrimination against Korean medicine doctors. Since medical certificates issued by physicians and by Korean medicine doctors are subject to the same forms and standards under the same statutes, it said there is little reasonable basis to treat the validity of certificates differently for demand management of the service.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also assessed that the Ministry of Health and Welfare notice cited by the local government is merely a standard premised on disability registration and should not be applied by analogy to screening temporary users of special transportation.
In particular, in the case of Korean medicine hospitals, they are hospital-level medical institutions under the Medical Service Act where physicians can also work. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found it unreasonable to uniformly exclude certificates written by physicians working at Korean medicine hospitals while recognizing certificates from physicians working at general hospitals.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recommended that the local government revise the relevant regulations so that medical certificates from Korean medicine clinics and Korean medicine hospitals are not excluded from the medical certificates required to screen eligible users of special transportation for people with transportation challenges.