[Reporter's Notebook] Health Minister Jeong should show ‘communication and harmony’

Jeong Eun-kyeong has been appointed as the first Minister of Health and Welfare of the Lee Jae Myung administration.

As an official closely associated with Korea’s Covid-19 response efforts, Jeong enjoys significant public trust and expectations. However, the challenges she faces are no small task.

In particular, dissolving the accumulated conflicts and distrust with the medical community following the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration's push to increase the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 will be a difficult endeavor.

The medical community, led by the Korean Medical Association (KMA), has responded positively to Jeong's nomination and appointment. However, it remains to be seen whether this goodwill will persist, given that Jeong has yet to begin her official duties.

The Yoon administration's healthcare policy can be summed up as “disconnection and unilateralism.”

While claiming that “dialogue with the medical community is important,” the former administration failed to properly gather opinions or work out measures to resolve conflicts when pushing major policies, including strengthening essential medical services and enacting the Nursing Act, leading to repeated conflicts between the government and the medical community, or among different medical professions.

The “medical reform” initiative, which the Yoon administration identified as the top priority in the healthcare sector, has also been criticized as a half-baked policy that fails to adequately reflect the opinions of the medical community, which is directly affected by the reforms.

Policies pushed without social consensus have fueled backlash from the medical field and caused confusion and harm to the public through emergency measures, such as the suspension of emergency services due to collective actions by trainee doctors and medical students.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare, led by Minister Jeong, must not repeat the Yoon administration's approach. Healthcare policy has a significant impact on the medical community and the lives of the general public. Therefore, it must be promoted based on diverse communication and consideration of the various voices of the people, the interests of different professions, and the disparities between the Seoul metro region and the rest of the country.

In her inaugural address, Minister Jeong also cited “resolving the prolonged conflict between the government and the medical community” as one of the most pressing issues to be addressed by the ministry. Such words should not be mere rhetoric but should lead to substantive efforts for change.

To this end, it is necessary to move away from policy design led by the central government and establish a structure in which the medical community and the public participate together in productive communication to inform policy decisions.

The “people-centered policy design, resolution of regional medical disparities, and expansion of public medical care” emphasized by Minister Jeong and to be achieved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare are tasks that can only be accomplished through cooperation among the government, the medical community, and the people.

In this process, Minister Jeong should demonstrate leadership that prioritizes restoring trust over speedy policy implementation. The public and the medical community want stability and a correction of the broken healthcare system, rather than hasty reforms and quick results.

I hope that Minister Jeong will continue to demonstrate the scientific judgment and sincere communication she has shown in the Covid-19 response while serving as Minister of Health and Welfare, resolving conflicts between the government and the medical community and laying the foundation for a truly people-centered healthcare system.

Minister Jeong's first steps are crucial to the success of the Lee Jae Myung administration's healthcare policies.