South Korea president Yoon seems scared of revealing National Election Committee's skeleton in the closet when he has been ruthless to the powerless resident doctors.

On April 30, Dr. Park Jae-il, the head of the Department of Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital, spoke with tears in his eyes, calling for a complete review of healthcare reform. “We have been thinking about what the right direction of healthcare reform for the people should be, to correct what has been deformed, but after a while, we have become public enemies of the people, and there is no place for resident doctors to lean on.”

The government has ignored the opinions of many experts in the medical field and imposed mandatory regulations. MZ resident doctors, who are both doctors and trainees, were targeted as if they were the ones who were trying to enjoy special privileges by masking the problems of the essential healthcare system. MZ doctors were demonized. The central nervous system that supported the Korean essential healthcare system was cut with a surgical knife by the government, who is an unlicensed doctor.

MZ resident doctors may not understand the government's one-way traffic. They must be surprised and frightened. The bitter taste of medical socialism makes their tongues tingle. We must recognize and correct this bitterness for what it is. Korea has the world's third largest university hospital healthcare system after the United States and Germany, including 17 of the world's 250 university hospitals. It has the world's best essential healthcare system centered on university hospitals.

The number of hospital beds in Korea is 685,636. The ratio is 13.2 beds per 1,000 people, which is three times the average of 4.4 beds in OECD countries. The number of beds is increasing rapidly, mainly in university hospitals, and it has been argued that the number of beds needs to be increased by 2,000 every year.

The problem is the medical delivery system. No matter how many doctors there are, if there are no specialists in the required fields, patients will be harmed by problems in the medical delivery system, such as emergency room rush. Increasing the total number of doctors just because we need to increase the total number of doctors will cause even more problems in the medical delivery system. Why are the Welfare Ministry bureaucrats ignoring the pleas of these field specialists?

Instead of talking about how to increase the number of doctors who want to work in essential medicine and create an environment where they can work in local hospitals, the media's witch-hunt against resident doctors in the run-up to the general election seems to be a prelude to a medical totalitarian state. Some even said it was the second season of the Moon administration.

On April 30, the Seoul High Court issued an injunction against the government's decision to increase the number of medical schools by 2,000, saying that “all administrative actions of the government must be subject to judicial review, and there can be no administrative action that is not subject to judicial control.” The court ordered the government to submit scientific evidence, meeting materials, etc.

We ask the administration: Was there any scientific data that showed that the 2,000 increase in medical school capacity should be implemented this year? If so, did the data fully consult with and obtain the consent of doctors and experts in the field? If there was such a process, why did the resident doctors resign? If there was no democratic and scientific process in the healthcare reform process, it is safe to say that the government insisted on an unconstitutional and totalitarian administrative method that undermines liberal democratic values.

In a liberal democracy, the solution to improving the essential healthcare system is simple. Provide incentives for specialty doctors to voluntarily go into essential care. Pay them the best in the industry. Demonizing doctors who want to resign and change careers, demotivating them, and forcing them to treat patients by executive order is something you would see in totalitarian or communist countries. The Korean government should recognize the sacrifices and efforts of doctors and increase their benefits to make them want to continue treating patients.

The government's job is not to coerce people. It is to protect people and ensure fair opportunities and freedom of choice so that they are not demotivated to work. The same government that has been clamoring for healthcare reform and attacking healthcare to the point of destroying it has consistently remained tight-lipped about allegations of election irregularities by the Election Commission. The government has used ruthless public power to drive powerless majors to the brink of nowhere in their career choices, but it has been careful to behave like a coward in front of the all-powerful National Election Committee.

Former Monthly Chosun reporter

Former Weekly Chosun reporter

CEO of Happy Baeksus Inc.

CEO of Bexus Media

Director of Bexus Policy Research Institute

22nd National Assembly Election Yongsan-gu Independent Candidate