[Anchor]

As backlash from the medical community continues over the search and seizure at Ajou University Hospital's Pediatric Emergency Center, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the police have stepped up to improve investigative procedures. While the police partially accommodated the demands of the medical community, the request to fundamentally restrict search and seizure operations was not included.

Reporter Jeong Gyeong-yun has the details.

[Reporter]

Yesterday afternoon at the Government Complex-Seoul, Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong and Acting National Police Agency Commissioner General Kim Jong-chul met to discuss ways to improve investigative procedures for essential medical fields, including emergency rooms.

According to the police guidelines obtained by SBS through the office of Lee Man-hee, Chairperson of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, investigators are instructed to prioritize searching non-medical spaces when conducting searches and seizures for essential medical fields such as emergency, pediatric, and critical care, and to consider requesting voluntary submission of materials when medical treatment spaces must be searched.

In cases of patient death or obstruction of medical treatment in the emergency room, the guidelines categorize the two situations for different responses, while requiring prior consultation with managers before entering the emergency room.

Although these measures reflect some demands from the medical community, they did not include key demands raised during a press conference on October 30 by the medical community, such as a principled restriction on searches and seizures in essential medical settings and the establishment of specific control mechanisms to prevent indiscriminate execution of warrants.

The medical community responded to the police guidelines by stating, "The guidelines contain only in-principle contents, so more effective alternatives must be presented," and added, "The voices of the medical field should be further reflected in future discussion processes."

Meanwhile, patient advocacy groups, which had largely refrained from releasing official stances, emphasized, "Searches and seizures backed by legally issued warrants should not be restricted in principle simply because they occur in an emergency room," adding, "The guidelines must simultaneously ensure the safety of emergency patients and guarantee the truth-finding and evidence-securing processes for victims of medical accidents."

The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that the police guidelines have not yet been finalized and that it will continue discussions with the medical community and the police.

(Camera Reporter: Cho Choon-dong | Video Editor: Jeong Yong-hwa)