TRAINEE DOCTORS SUBMIT RESIGNATION

TRAINEE DOCTORS SUBMIT RESIGNATION

[Anchor Lead]
In response to the government's plan to increase medical school admissions, resident doctors from major hospitals in Seoul have ceased work starting this morning, following their submission of resignation letters in protest. The anticipated disruptions to medical services are becoming a reality, with a series of incidents including canceled and postponed surgeries being reported.

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According to a survey of 100 major teaching hospitals conducted by the Central Disasters Management Headquarters, 6,415 trainee doctors are confirmed to have handed in their resignations as of 11 p.m. Monday. This amounts to 55% of all trainee doctors at the hospitals they belong to. Of this figure, 1,630 doctors have left their posts. However due to a ban issued by the health ministry, none of the teaching hospitals have actually accepted the resignations. An onsite inspection of ten hospitals also found that 757 trainee doctors did not come to work. To this, the government has issued a return-to-work order. The collective action by interns and residents is inevitably dealing a blow to medical services. As of 6 p.m. Monday, there were 34 reported cases of patient inconvenience, 25 of which were canceled operations. Expressing serious concern, the health ministry has urged trainee doctors to return to their patients.

[Soundbite]
Park Min-soo (Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare): It's not the time to avoid government orders and study legal ways to evade sanctions but the time to use what you learned to save lives.

Meanwhile medical students are also submitting collective leaves of absence. According to education ministry data on 40 med schools nationwide, 1,133 students have applied for leaves at seven schools. But only four of them have been granted leaves over personal reasons and military enlistment. Group action such as boycotting classes is also reported at seven schools. The education ministry has called on schools to thoroughly oversee such collective action strictly in line with school regulations.

MEDICAL WALKOUT HURTS PATIENTS

[Anchor Lead]
As the medical service gap becomes a reality, patients are increasingly receiving sudden notices of admission cancellations, leading to a surge in related damages. In particular, Lee Geon-ju, the chairman of the Korea Lung Cancer Patients' Association and a terminal lung cancer patient himself, has pleaded with doctors to "show mercy."

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This man has an 8-year-old son waiting for a brain tumor surgery. The boy was supposed to undergo surgery at a university hospital in Seoul, but the operation was suddenly cancelled Monday when he was scheduled to be admitted.

[Soundbite]
(Hospital Official (VOICE MODIFIED)): All operations are cancelled. He was supposed to be admitted and undergo tests.

He has been suffering tumor-related symptoms for nearly a month now. The son could do nothing but cry at the news that surgery was cancelled.

[Soundbite]
Kim ○○ (Patient's Father (VOICE MODIFIED)): I told him the news. He then sat next to me and cried.

The father, watching his sick son, expressed outrage.

[Soundbite]
Kim ○○ (Patient's Father (VOICE MODIFIED)): Don't they take the vow to do no harm? Will the doctors stop only when patients like us die?

Residents have handed in their resignations at this large hospital in Seoul. Even the patients at the so-called 'big 5 hospitals' in Seoul are experiencing disruptions in medical services. About half of the surgeries in all departments were cancelled at Severance Hospital in Sinchon, where treatment has been suspended.

[Soundbite]
(Guardian of Patient whose surgery was postponed (VOICE MODIFIED)): There's no one to remove the nasal tube. It's not like people get sick only when the time is right.

As patients continued to suffer, Lee Geon-ju, head of the Korea Lung Cancer Patients' Association and lung cancer patient himself, implored doctors to show mercy.

[Soundbite]
Lee Geon-ju (Head, Korea Lung Cancer Patients' Association): Under no circumstances should patients be neglected by doctors and miss urgent surgeries or treatments.

Meanwhile, police are pursuing an individual who posted an online comment urging residents who resigned to delete hospital data before leaving the hospitals.

DEPUTY SPEAKER LEAVES DP

[Anchor Lead]
Kim Young-joo, National Assembly Deputy Speaker and four-term Democratic Party lawmaker, declared her departure from the party. Her exit followed a refusal to accept the party's decision that placed her in the bottom 20% of its evaluation, risking nomination disadvantages. Kim criticized the party for becoming Lee Jae-myung's private party.

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Representative Kim Young-joo, the sitting National Assembly Deputy Speaker and four-time Democratic Party legislator, announced that she's leaving the party. She said she was notified that she belonged to the lower 20% in the legislator assessment rating, which left her feeling humiliated. Then she demanded that the assessment scores be disclosed. She was particularly interested in knowing the result of the qualitative evaluation which is likely to be subjective. Having served as the first minister of employment and labor under the Moon Jae-in administration, she claimed that she was branded 'anti-Lee Jae-myung.‘

[Soundbite]
Kim Young-joo (Nat'l Assembly Deputy Speaker (DP)): I was branded 'anti-Lee Jae-myung' and It was an excuse to drop me out of nomination. The DP has turned into Lee Jae-myung's private party.

Kim said nothing has been decided about her future following the departure. The DP refuted her claim by saying that the assessment procedure and process were undisclosed per standard practice and carried out independently. However, if more legislators in the lower 20% of the ranking continue to leave the party like Kim, the conflict among different factions within the Democratic Party would likely worsen.

POLICE PROBE KFA HEAD

[Anchor Lead]
Despite fielding a squad considered the strongest ever, the national football team's miss on the Asian Cup title led to Coach Klinsmann's dismissal. The situation has escalated with Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu now under police investigation for alleged breach of trust in Klinsmann's appointment. Here's more.

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Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu asserted last week that there were no issues with the appointment process of coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

[Soundbite]
Chung Mong-gyu (Chair, Korea Football Association (Feb. 16)): The process was the same as Paulo Bento's appointment. Two candidates advanced to the 2nd round of interviews based on their priority rankings.

But it is different from what Klinsmann said. According to a report by German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, Klinsmann said that shortly after the round of 16 in the Qatar World Cup, he jokingly asked Chung if he was looking for a new head coach. He added Chung took his question seriously and that was where the selection process began. Members of the KFA's power reinforcement committee say they were notified of the newly hired head coach just before the announcement. It is now up to a police probe to find the truth. The commissioner of the National Police Agency said a complaint was filed against Chung last week for obstruction of business and embezzlement, and it has been assigned to the Jongno Police Station.

[Soundbite]
Kim Soon-hwan (Civic group head): We believe Chung disregarded procedures and appointed the coach based on his own opinion. He should take responsibility for that.

Amid the unprecedented situation of the KFA president being reported for coach appointment, fans are growing skeptical of the KFA's ability to find a new head coach.

NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]
U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights Julie Turner who is visiting South Korea said that now is the time to help North Korean people access information they want, stressing the importance of free information flow into the North. In a congratulatory speech at the first Seoul Freedom Forum on Monday, Turner noted that a United Nations report on North Korean human rights was first published a decade ago, but the rights situation in the regime is still the worst in the world. The event was held to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of the first U.N. Commission of Inquiry report on the North's human rights violations in 2014. North Korean defector and human rights activist Kim Il-hyok testified at the forum.
Car license plate seal caps will be abolished after 62 years. The transport ministry said a revision to the Motor Vehicle Management Act will be promulgated on Tuesday. First introduced in 1962, license plates were fastened with seal caps to prevent theft as well as forgery and modifications. However amid advanced information technology and the adoption of reflective film plates, which are difficult to forge, there have been growing calls over the inefficiency of seal caps.

AFTER-HOURS PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL

[Anchor Lead]
Amid backlash over doctor increases and service disruptions, a positive note emerges from the Moonlight Children's Hospital. It allows young patients to receive specialist pediatric care during late hours and holidays, bypassing the need for emergency room visits. This service has greatly pleased working parents, doubling the number of hospitals in just a year.

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On a weekday night, when a majority of pediatric clinics are closed, this hospital in particular is packed with young patients. This is a moonlight children's hospital, which offers after-hours medical care services on weekday evenings or holidays. Thanks to this hospital, parents don't need to take their sick children with mild symptoms to the ER for just a cold or a fever. It's also convenient for working parents to visit after work.

[Soundbite]
Lee Dong-gyu (Yongin resident): In an emergency room, the wait is long. And there are instances I don't want to expose my children to.

Over 5,000 patients have visited the hospital in just four months since it opened its doors.

[Soundbite]
Lee Mi-jin (Kangnam General Hospital): There are children suffering from fevers and enteritis. Viral enteritis have been spreading so many children suffer from vomiting and exhaustion.

Early last year, there were 35 moonlight children's hospitals across the nation. After the government carried out measures to improve the pediatric health care system, the number has doubled to 70 in a year. The higher number of hospitals naturally leads to a larger scope of availability. But it must also be said that the newly established moonlight hospitals are mainly located in densely populated regions. There is no such hospital in Gangwon-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do provinces. But in Gyeonggi-do, 20 moonlight hospitals are concentrated in populous regions.

[Soundbite]
(Community health center official): It's possible to run moonlight hospitals in cities with more children. But in counties where there are less kids, it would be unprofitable.

There's another issue that must be corrected. Many clinics that obtained the moonlight hospital designation are failing to deliver after-hour services. The government will provide financial support of up to 430 million won or about 320,000 U.S. dollars to each moonlight hospital this year.

ORGAN DONORS INSPIRE CHILDREN

[Anchor Lead]
A special scholarship award ceremony was held for the children of organ donors, who have bestowed the gift of life to others. KBS met with the children of donors, who are committed to continuing the legacy of sharing and love, as practiced by their parents.

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Cho Mi-young was a mother of three children. She died of an unexpected brain hemorrhage last October. Her organs were donated to save seven patients. Although it was not an easy decision, her family finds comfort in it now.

[Soundbite]
Lee Hyun-joo (Daughter of late Cho Mi-young): It was tough accepting my mom's absence when we decided to donate her organs. But giving someone a new life means she's still with me, somehow.

Her daughter, Lee Hyun-joo, enters nursing college next month in order to carry on her mother's legacy.

[Soundbite]
Lee Hyun-joo (Daughter of late Cho Mi-young): My mother gave this big love. So I felt I have to spread the love to other people.

Over the past 5 years, more than 2,200 brain-dead patients have donated their organs after passing away. A ceremony was held to grant scholarships to children of these donors. A total of 14 people received scholarships in the ceremony. The scholarship recipients are determined to help those in need and repay the love they have received.

[Soundbite]
Shin Yoon-geon (Son of late Shin Yoon-jae): I want to open my own restaurant someday and give warm meals to people in need.

[Soundbite]
Lee Hyun-joo (Daughter of late Cho Mi-young): I want to ask my mother to watch over me as I start college this year and see how I grow.