‘We didn’t request MPAK for mediation,’ says former intern rep.

The Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA) has not stated its official position on the South Korean government’s postponement of medical license suspension and plan to establish a dialogue consultative body. However, the members of the KIRA criticize the government’s actions by saying that the government does whatever it wants to do first and is using the postponement of medical license suspension as a belated inducement.

Regarding meetings between Han Dong-hoon, the head of the People Power Party’s emergency response committee, and Kim Chang-soo, the head of the Medical Professors Association of Korea (MPAK), for mediation, the former intern representative of the Catholic Medical Center, Ryu Okhada, said the MPAK cannot represent interns, residents, or the medical sector. “No intern or resident requested the MPAK for mediation or delegated the authority to do so,” said Ryu. “The government only mentions dialogues as a pretense. The postponement of medical license suspension will not convince any intern or resident."

“Such a proposal for dialogues could have been made before announcing the new number of student slots for each university,” said a resident of a university hospital in Seoul and nearby regions. “It feels deceptive that the government is going to make mediating efforts before the general elections after following through with the actions as it wished.” It was also reported that most interns and residents do not trust medical professors’ mediation attempts, given the past incident where the Korea Medical Association reached an agreement with the government while excluding interns and residents during a medical strike in 2020.


여근호 기자 yeoroot@donga.com