As the National Assembly is likely to pass a revision bill in a plenary session to mandate surveillance cameras in hospital operating rooms (OR), the medical community across the nation is vehemently opposing the move.
Some doctors claimed that liberals who pushed for the bill had political purposes and encouraged colleague physicians to prepare an aggressive fight in case of the bill's passage.
On Wednesday, Korea Hospital Doctors Association (KHDA) said in a statement that lawmakers were pursuing the bill for political purposes and urged them to abolish it immediately.
KHDA said members of the ruling Democratic Party were attacking the medical community by pushing for the revision bill of the Medical Service Act to install CCTV cameras in OR mandatorily.
“Ahead of the presidential election, the ruling party seems to be attacking the medical community deliberately to boost their approval ratings,” KHDA said in the statement.
A presidential candidate in the ruling party attacked physicians by calling them a group with a vested interest. The person also showed a willingness to pass a bill to toughen punishment on physicians for illegal medical practices, the association said.
The idea of installing CCTV cameras in the OR was mainly supported by Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, the leading presidential hopeful of the Democratic Party.
Lawmakers forcing to pass the CCTV installation bill must have political purposes, KHDA argued.
The association went on to say that it was particularly shocking to witness the behavior of the ruling party, which abused its legislative power to achieve its political goals without caring for the safety of the Korean people.
“We strongly condemn this tyrannical behavior,” KHDA said. “The National Assembly should immediately abolish the CCTV installation bill that tramples on the human rights of patients and healthcare workers.”
The Korean Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Korean Neurosurgical Society also issued a joint statement on Wednesday, opposing the bill.
“The CCTV installation bill’s passage is imminent, pushed by a plausible excuse,” the neurosurgeons said. “Politicians tend to do anything for the sake of winning votes, but it won't take long for them to realize what's going to eat them up in the end.”
Putting CCTV cameras in OR will worsen patients’ distrust in surgeons, they said. They warned that such distrust would regress professionalism, and mediocre patient care will replace the best healthcare service.
The groups of neurosurgeons vowed "to do anything to right the wrong” and work with related associations such as the Korean Medical Association to nullify the CCTV installation bill.
The Daejeon Medical Association (DMA) clearly expressed its opposition to the bill, saying doctors should boycott surgery if the bill passes the National Assembly.
If hospitals should install CCTVs in OR for the sake of patients’ right to know, they should put surveillance on Covid-19 vaccination first to address the adverse reactions of Covid-19 vaccines, the DMA said.
“If we have to put people’s right to know as the top priority, we will have to install CCTVs in Covid-19 vaccination rooms to identify vaccine-related adverse events,” the DMA said. “If doctors are treated as potential criminals, they do not have any reason to participate in the government’s Covid-19 screening and vaccination program.”
If the CCTV installation bill passes the National Assembly’s plenary session, Korean doctors should boycott surgery and Covid-19 vaccination, the DMA said.
The association has to protect doctors’ rights and people’s health even if it has to face a harsh confrontation, it added.