Korean Medical Association: “If the government wants to show sincerity, it must stop the administrative order to increase the number of medical schools and majors.”

On the 24th, the Emergency Response Committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) said, “Withdrawing the unfair administrative order issued to medical residents and stopping the process of increasing the number of medical residents shows the government’s minimum sincerity in leading to a position of dialogue.”

On this day, the Emergency Committee of the Korean Medical Association held a briefing on ‘Suppressing the increase in medical school quota’ at the Medical Association building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Kim Taek-woo, head of the emergency committee of the Korean Medical Association, said, “Under the current situation, dialogue that excludes residents and students (medical school students) is meaningless,” and added, “It is absurd to call this a ‘refusal of dialogue.’”

Regarding the resignation of medical school professors starting on the 25th, Kim Seong-geun, chairman of the emergency committee’s media and public relations committee, said, “Professor resignation is different from resident resignation, so a situation may arise where one professor is missing and hospital treatment itself becomes impossible.” “Don’t pay attention to whether professors resign. Instead, the government should pay attention to preventing professors from resigning.”

Earlier this morning, the Emergency Response Committee of the Faculty Council of Seoul National University College of Medicine and Seoul National University Hospital announced that it would accept open submissions for research papers related to the scale of medical school expansion. In response to this, the Medical Association Emergency Committee said, “Creating a rational discussion organization must include the research project proposed by the Seoul National University College of Medicine Emergency Committee,” and added, “It is consistent in that it is an estimate through a rational organization, which we have consistently insisted on.”

The Korean Medical Association maintains that it has never received a proposal for a ‘5+4 council’ from the government. Kim Seong-geun, chairman of the emergency committee’s media and public relations committee, said, “The government has never proposed a 5+4 dialogue to the Korean Medical Association,” and added, “It is meaningless for people who do not have decision-making power to gather together and talk in any form.”