South Korea government to compromise on medical reforms

STORY: In a bid to end a two-month walkout by doctors, South Korea's government announced a compromise in its medical reform plans on Friday (April 19).

The government accepted a proposal by major state medical school deans to let them set new admissions for 2025, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said.

“The government has made a bold decision. By proactively accepting the state-funded universities’ deans' recommendations, we're hoping to create a chance to protect medical students, normalize education and resolve the dispute."

It also said that President Yoon Suk Yeol would meet the opposition leader for the first time after two years in office.

The conciliatory moves followed a crushing election defeat for Yoon's ruling party last week.

Yoon's refusal to communicate with parliamentary leaders and the standoff with doctors were key issues in last week's legislative elections.

To compromise, Han said he accepted the proposal to scale back the increase in the medical school admissions quota and to give universities flexibility in setting their quotas.

This was the first shift from the government's plan to increase new medical student admissions by 2,000 a year from next year.

It will eventually add 10,000 more physicians by 2035.

Following the government's announcement, the association representing the country's trainee doctors said it had no information to share.

However, the protesting physicians have said the healthcare sector is not short of doctors.

And that the government's plans fall short of addressing pay and working conditions properly.

Yoon's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change in the medical reform plans.