South Korea Presses On With Trainee Doctor Expansion Despite Walkout

Jenny Lee and Soo-Hyang Choi
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s government announced Wednesday the allocation of its increased enrollment quotas at medical schools for next year as it pressed ahead with the expansion despite an ongoing protest by trainee doctors.

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The education ministry said 82% of the additional 2,000 spots will go to schools outside the Seoul metropolitan area as part of efforts to alleviate doctor shortages in rural areas. The remaining 18% will be allocated to schools in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, both neigboring Seoul.

The announcement comes as a month-long walkout by the trainee doctors, who play key roles in providing emergency care and surgeries, puts a strain on the country’s medical system. Medical school professors, who also dispense health care, have said they will join the labor action and resign if the government doesn’t take steps to resolve the standoff.

Read more: South Korea Issues First License Suspension for Doctors’ Walkout

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government contends the enrollment plan is essential for providing care in the rapidly aging nation, and that medical seat numbers have not increased for nearly three decades. The current enrollment quota is 3,058.

The concentration of doctors in South Korea ranks among the lowest in the developed world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Doctors leading the protest say the plan won’t fix fundamental problems such as the lack of physicians in essential fields, a concentration of doctors in urban areas and an array of legal risks.

“The government is well aware that increasing the medical school quota cannot resolve all the problems affecting vital fields and the rural medical system,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said at a briefing. “Increasing the medical school quota is only a prerequisite, not a sufficient factor for medical reform.”

Kim Yoon, a health policy professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine who does not provide health care, said that while the planned increase for 2025 has been fixed, the government could continue discussions with the doctors to adjust the numbers in following years.

“The side effects of the expansion that doctors are concerned about will depend on how we change health care policy and how we reform the medical system,” Kim said.

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