[Contribution] It’s the government-doctor conflict that needs ‘orderly resolution’

The Dec. 3 martial law imposition has made me realize that, as a physician, I have been indifferent to many agendas in our society. I was silent during the Itaewon tragedy, when the R&D budget was cut, and when labor unions, including the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers Union, were suppressed.

Then, in February 2024, when President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the impulsive, irrational, and unrealizable policy of increasing the medical school enrollment by 2,000 (an increase of 70 percent), like martial law, no one was left to stand by the medical community.

The martial law declaration proved Yoon incapable of rational judgment and exposed the poverty of all his policies and philosophies. When soldiers' guns were pointed at the republic, the citizens' feelings could not have been different from those of the doctors over the past ten months.

Unconstitutional claim of an 'orderly exit'

In the run-up to the impeachment vote last Saturday, Han Dong-hoon, leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), called for the “president’s orderly early exit.” Han later met with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, saying, “The government party will handle the state administration in consultation with the prime minister.”

However, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik said, “The joint exercise of presidential powers by the prime minister and the ruling party is unconstitutional. Nowhere in our Constitution does it stipulate the triumvirate of ‘party leader, prime minister, and president, and any attempt to distribute power without any legal basis is an evasion of responsibility for the civil war.”

Constitutional scholars also say, “The only orderly way to remove Yoon Suk Yeol from office is through impeachment proceedings.” The PPP has already lost all authority and ability to persuade the people. The economy is in freefall, diplomacy is being passed over, and the healthcare system shows no signs of getting out of the mess.

Citizens are worried. Who would control the military in the event of a limited war with North Korea? By approving the resignation of Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, President Yoon showed his authority to rule remained intact. The current political situation, maintained by power relations rather than the Constitution, is politically and socially unstable.

It is dangerous to set a precedent that allows insurgents to go unpunished or impeached. We never know when the next president will pull out martial law as a trump card in a crisis. Citizens say the precedent of punishment must be set decisively now to avoid path dependency.

Medical community calls for stopping student recruitment for 2025, but …

After the Dec. 3 insurgency, statements from the medical community followed. “We are deeply concerned and strongly condemn President Yoon's declaration of emergency martial law and PPP leader Han's unconstitutional actions. The attempt to distribute power without a legal basis is also unacceptable,” said the emergency committee of the Seoul National University College of Medicine faculty. “Stop improvised and unilateral healthcare reforms and take practical and realistic measures on the medical turmoil. We must focus on minimizing patient harm and restoring healthcare.”

About 800 trainee doctors and medical students gathered before the Seoul National University Hospital on Sunday. They said, “The Yoon administration should face the reality of Korea's crumbling healthcare and admit its medical policy failures. Emergency martial law bears a striking resemblance to the unilateral imposition of medical policies. Stop the abnormally pushed medical school recruitment for the 2025 academic year.”

The medical community's calls for “canceling the 2025 medical school recruitment” have not changed since the conflict began in February. They have gone further with the “Stop 2025 recruitment” campaign, saying it is impossible to teach 7,500 students simultaneously.

On the other hand, the Korean Medical Students Association, representing students from 40 medical schools, announced that a recruitment suspension is inevitable in either the 2025 or 2026 academic years, leaving the possibility of recruitment suspension for 2026, too.

The recruitment suspension is not entirely unrealistic. There are precedents. For instance, Daewon University School of Nursing canceled the first round of admissions due to the cancellation of the evaluation in 2023. Sejong University and Japan’s Tokyo University Medical School also did not recruit a class for various reasons in 1990 and 1968.

An 'orderly resolution' is necessary for the government-doctor conflict

All this turmoil is due to Yoon's impulsive, unscientific, irrational, unrealizable, non-consensual process to increase medical enrollment by 2,000 students.

However, there are different opinions on the feasibility of canceling or suspending medical school recruitment for the class of 2025. The skeptics said it is not realistic now that several accepted students are already. It may have been possible when the 2025 medical student batch was “abstract.” However, when each of them becomes a “person,” it is pretty challenging to cancel their admission, considering their hard work and suffering.

It is clear that they cannot realistically educate 3,000 students in the 2024 class and 4,500 students in the 2025 class simultaneously. In other colleges, it might be possible, but in a medical school with a rigorous schedule like high school, where hospital training and anatomy training are essential, it is “physically” impossible to produce quality doctors.

We must consider other voices, such as those from medical students’ associations. If it is difficult to stop recruiting the already materialized 2025, one solution is to guarantee the 2025 class a year of sabbaticals outside of schooling and instead recruit the yet-to-be-materialized 2026 class. These voices reflect a rational concern to share the pain among different groups and avoid the worst-case scenario.

The “orderly departure of Yoon Suk Yeol,” claimed by PPP leader Han and Prime Minister Han, who sympathized with the insurgency, is a charade. The people have never given them that power and impeachment is the only orderly removal provided by the Constitution.

The ongoing government-doctor conflict, where patients are being harmed, and medical fields are being destroyed, is where we must seek an “orderly resolution.”