A series of unacceptable incidents in the medical sector, such as sexual violence against patients and ghost surgery, have sparked controversy over the existing criteria for revocation of the licenses of physicians who have committed a crime. Patient safety may be seriously undermined when a person who has committed a sexual crime, assault, murder, or other crime administers medical treatment to patients. Physicians deal with people’s lives and must be held to higher moral standards than the general public.

Under the current Act, however, the criteria for revocation of physicians’ licenses is limited to violations of the Medical Service Act, and as a result, there is no means to punish those who commit serious crimes or unethical acts.

Accordingly, the Amendment prescribes that the license of a medical person shall be revoked where he or she has violated the Medical Service Act or has been sentenced to imprisonment without labor or heavier punishment, granted suspension of execution, or granted suspension of sentence for any crime; and that he or she shall not be re-issued a license within 5 years of the date of revocation (Article 8, subparagraph 4; Article 65, paragraph 2).

Expand the grounds for disqualification of medical personnel to include cases where a medical person has been sentenced to imprisonment without labor or heavier punishment, granted suspension of execution, or granted suspension of sentence, and the execution of the sentence is not completed or the decision not to execute such sentence has not been finalized (Article 8, subparagraph 4)

Increase the period of prohibition of license re-issue for cases where a license has been revoked due to specified grounds (Article 65)