[Reporter`s view] Incurable disease afflicts medical field

Case 1: Since May last year, doctors seemed somewhat content following the medical reform agreement hammered out with the representatives from the public organizations and the pharmacists. However, six months later, doctors once again protested when the "policy to list the actual price of medication," which cut the profit margins on medication, was implemented.

The doctors claimed they had not gathered the consensus of all and a new board of executives for the negotiations was installed in April this year.

Case 2: Following the nationwide walkout by doctors June 20-25, the government and the National Assembly held various talks with the representatives from the pharmacist and doctor associations starting in early July. However, the advance guard committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the committee for the fight to reclaim doctors' rights, continued to apply brakes to the negotiation and the agreements.

With its hands tied, the government passed the revision of the Pharmaceutical Law on the virtue of its authority, which was then met with opposition by the doctors, with the interns and medical school students taking the lead in a walkout as they called for another revision.

It has become common to see doctors issue statements that flip-flop and create a barrier to an agreement due to internal strife. Following the vote on whether to accept and adopt the newly revised Pharmaceutical Law on Nov. 22, the doctors once again were facing discord within their ranks.

The KMA and the advance guard committee had stood opposed to one another concerning the new revision of the Pharmaceutical Law, then with the narrow margin of victory in the voting, 247 votes, allegations of irregularities in voting has become the new battleground.

"It is disheartening to see the government and the media speak as if the tripartite agreement by the doctors, pharmacists and government representatives also reflected the agreement by the members of the KMA," Shin Sang-Jin, chairman of the "committee for regaining medical rights," said Nov. 17, prior to the voting by the members of the KMA. "It is more disheartening to see the KMA leaders attempting to persuade all members to accept the result of the tripartite talks."

The chairman of the advance guard committee Shin Sang-Jin issued an essay titled, "My Assertion in the Current Crisis," through which he strongly opposed the tripartite agreement and encouraged others to oppose its, as well.

An observer who saw as the press conference turn into a free-for-all due to the forceful obstruction by the advance guard members and the medical school students called this vernacular by phone and said: "The doctors have enjoyed a monopoly on medical knowledge and skill for very long. As such, it seems they believe they are self-righteous and can't accept otherwise."