National Assembly grills administration over medical turmoil

The National Assembly convened an emergency meeting of its Health-Welfare Committee on Friday afternoon. The committee received a briefing from Health-Welfare Minister Choi Sun-Jung on the current medical doctors` strike and asked questions about the policy steps the ministry is taking to address the medical turmoil. Lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties pointed out that the present situation has deteriorated due to the government`s inconsistent medical policy, and also asserted that the medical doctors have no justification to continue the general work stoppage.

They called upon both the government and the medical circles to hold sincere dialogue. Rep. Park Shi-Kyun of the opposition Grand National Party said that the government should take a high-handed attitude toward the resistance of the medical circles and urged it to release the chairman of the Korea Medical Association and its other leaders, who are now under detention, in order to resolve the medical dispute.

Rep. Kim Myung-Sop of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party claimed that the solution package announced by the ministry did not contain long-term measures and fell short of meeting demands from the medical circles. He asserted that the government should consider step-by-step measures for the solution of the medical woes, since there seems to be no realistic means of resolving the doctors` complaints all at once.