Trainee doctors call for government to ‘apologize before urging dialogue’

Government officials and trainee doctors commonly cited “restoring trust” as a requirement for unraveling the government-doctor conflict.

However, they differed on the conditions needed to restore trust. The government said the medical community should come to the table and start a dialogue. Still, junior doctors said a sincere apology was the first step.

The difference of views was plain at the Korean Academy of Health Policy and Management’s biannual conference, which was held on Thursday at St. John's Hotel in Gangneung, Gangwon Province.

Kim Chan-gyu, a third-year resident in the emergency department at Wonkwang University Hospital who resigned from his position, pointed to the government's duplicitous communication methods. Kim now works as a general practitioner in the emergency department of a regional secondary hospital.

“The more I talk to the government, the more confused I get,” Kim said. “When I talk to officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, they say they are willing to solve the problem and have an open ear (for communication). When I see the government's announcements, however, I get angry. It's filled with contents that completely lacks in the will to communicate.”

“The day after we evaluated the government's policy announcement, the minister or vice minister of health and welfare or the senior presidential secretary for social affairs would say something that completely disregarded (doctors),” he said. “I agree with the need for healthcare reform, but no dialogue is possible without restoring trust.”

Kim called for a change in the government’s attitude, saying that the first step in restoring trust is to express regret for the remarks that have destroyed doctors' pride.

“The first condition for restoring trust is an apology. So far, the government has never apologized. Even when they expressed regret to the doctors, it was not in the form of an apology. To restore trust, they should at least apologize,” he said. “Only after an apology can there be a step toward dialogue. They need to change their attitude so that doctors can trust them.”

The government also emphasized rebuilding trust. However, it emphasized that to rebuild trust, misunderstandings must be resolved through dialog. To start the dialog, they called for the medical community to participate in the Special Committee on Healthcare Reform under the direct jurisdiction of the President.

“The situation has become irreparable rather than resolved. It is time to reflect on how we look at each other,” said Kang Joon, head of the General Healthcare Reform Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The government is also thinking reflectively. I think a responsible government would make healthcare policies by thinking about why young doctors and doctors working in essential medicine have lost their pride.”

Kang said it's time for the medical community and the government to open up the dialog. He added that creating various public infrastructures related to healthcare policy and a structure where the government, medical community, and consumers can discuss it within them is the way to restore trust and make healthcare reform sustainable in the long run.

“The government will also think in forward-looking ways about the structure of the discussion of the healthcare reform task force and review the composition and operation of the committee so that the medical community can actively participate,” Kang said. “We will discuss it while keeping in mind that the healthcare reform task force will not become a one-sided discussion body, which regards as an object of reform as feared by the field.”