Different stances on medical crisis

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) yesterday proposed the establishment of a tripartite committee comprising doctors, pharmacists and government officials to find a solution to the medical reform controversy.

The committee would operate under the National Assembly`s Health and Welfare Committee, the opposition party said. The plan comes as many doctors nationwide are on strike.

The GNP made the proposal as it came out of a meeting with Kim In-Ho, director of the Korean Medical Association, Prof. Kim Hyon-Jip of the Council of Medical School Professors and Ju Su-Ho, a member of the hard line "committee to regain medical rights." Lee Kyung-Jae, one of the GNP`s chief policymakers, said that the government should be more clear on how medical fees will be raised, ensure better working conditions for post-residency fellows and release core doctors` group members currently imprisoned for leading the June doctors` walkout.

Touching on the medical sector, he called on it to engage in sincere negotiations with the government instead of resorting to hard line measures like striking.

However, the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) refused to consider the GNP`s proposal, noting that the GNP also approved the revised Pharmaceutical Law before reforms were launched this month. The MDP maintained that medical reform must go on as planned.

Bae Ki-Son, one of the chief MDP policymakers, said that the GNP should cooperate so that the special budget currently pending in the National Assembly to aid the smooth implementation of medical reform can be passed.