A person rests in the waiting room outside an emergency room of a major hospital in Seoul on June 6, 2024. (Yonhap)
As Korea’s healthcare system becomes increasingly paralyzed by a protracted conflict over plans to raise the nationwide admissions cap for medical schools, even members of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) are now calling on President Yoon Suk-yeol to take action to resolve the problem.
PPP lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo, himself a doctor, said on Sunday that the government must “solve problems of both literal survival and livelihood security for the people.”
“President Yoon must show determination and resolve the conflict between the medical community and the government on health care issues directly related to survival,” he said.
In a telephone interview with Hankyoreh that day, Ahn said, “To resolve these issues, I have arranged meetings between the President’s Office, officials from the Health and Welfare Ministry and members of the medical school’s faculty. But if they are unable to change the number (of the admission cap), the options are limited.”
“The only person who has the power to change that number is the president,” he added.
Ahn also said: “If things continue as they are, a world-class health system built over decades will completely collapse.”
“I would like to ask the government what it intends to do about it and what measures it has taken,” he continued.
Medical staff walk through the hallway of a university hospital in Seoul. (Yonhap)
He added: “He should come up with a plan that would provide for an agreement on raising the entry cap, but would postpone it for a year and provide for the establishment of a committee for public discussion.”
On Saturday, former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min said: “The most pressing problem is the collapse of the health care system. Emergency care, an essential component that the government had promised to promote, is now collapsing rapidly.”
“President Yoon needs to sort out his own mess,” he urged.
Yoo made the same comment in a Facebook post the same day, saying that the administration’s “diagnosis of the problem and proposed solutions were wrong” regarding the increase in the medical school admissions cap. “The president made a passionate case for the need to increase (the medical school admissions cap) by 2,000 people on April 1, just before the general election, but has nothing more to say about it now that things have reached this point,” he wrote.
“If this issue continues as it has without resolution because one person refuses to give in, the resulting disaster will be painful and the public will hold the president accountable,” the former congressman continued.
A day earlier, Kim Chong-in, a former interim leader of the PPP, had directly attacked Yoon, saying: “When someone insists on something he has no idea about, it has many unintended consequences.”
During an appearance on CBS Radio on Thursday, Kim described how he stumbled early in the morning and went to 22 emergency rooms for treatment, only to be turned away again and again.
“If the health crisis triggered by the issue of restricting admission to medical schools ultimately leads to the collapse (of the Korean health system), I think it will be difficult for the government to continue,” he said.
By Son Hyun-soo, staff reporter
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