Nurses take part in a rally on Sejong Boulevard in downtown Seoul on May 12, 2023, as part of activities to commemorate International Nurses Day that fell on the day and urge the government to promulgate the controversial amended nursing law. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 16 (Korea Bizwire) — President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoed the opposition-led nursing act Tuesday amid strong protests from doctors and nursing assistants against it, in his second veto of a bill since he took office.
The act, which was railroaded by the main opposition Democratic Party last month, is aimed at stipulating the roles and responsibilities of nurses, and improving their working conditions.
“The people’s health cannot be exchanged for anything,” Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office, before rejecting the legislation and asking the National Assembly to reconsider it.
Yoon said people’s health comes ahead of anything else, such as politics, foreign policy and economic policy, and can only be properly maintained through cooperation between various groups of medical professionals.
“The nursing act is creating excessive conflict between these related groups, and the move to separate nursing services from medical institutions is causing people to feel anxious about their health,” he said.
“It is very regrettable that such social conflict and anxiety were not resolved through sufficient consultations between groups and sufficient deliberation by the National Assembly,” he added.
The ruling People Power Party and the government agreed during a high-level policy consultation meeting Sunday to ask Yoon to veto the bill, saying it would take the people’s health and lives hostage.
A Cabinet meeting led by President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at the presidential office in Seoul on May 16, 2023. (Yonhap)
Doctors and nursing assistants have opposed the bill, arguing the legislation would cause confusion in the medical sector because it could lead to nurses opening their own clinics without doctors’ supervision and that nursing assistants could be discriminated against.
Nurses tout the bill as essential in redefining their work as a more independent and professional service amid growing medical needs.
They also argue that the act was one of Yoon’s campaign promises ahead of last year’s presidential election.
This was the second time Yoon vetoed a bill after he rejected a revision to the Grain Management Act last month, which required the government purchase of surplus rice.
Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting was the first to be held in Yoon’s second year in office. May 10 marked one year since Yoon’s inauguration.
Yoon recalled he made a campaign promise to create a new country of the people by restoring the collapsed liberal democracy and rule of law, and that despite his administration’s efforts, more needs to be done in order for people to feel the change.
He outlined the work his administration has done to promote exports, restore fiscal health, “normalize” real estate policies and revive the nuclear power plant industry.
In particular, he noted the government’s decision Monday to raise second-quarter electricity rates by 5.3 percent on-year, which he blamed on the previous government’s nuclear phase-out policy and lax spending.
Yoon also stressed the importance of completing reforms in labor, education and the pension system for the sake of future generations.
“Reforms always face resistance from cartels with vested interests, but I will look only to the people and focus only on the people’s interests,” he said.
(Yonhap)
