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Doctors threaten to protest gov't move to expand medical school quota
Students pass through the entrance of a medical school in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
Yoon administration expected to unveil quota hike plan Thursday to address shortage of doctors
The government is expected to face massive protests from doctors over its imminent plan to drastically increase the enrollment quota of medical schools to address a looming shortage of physicians in the country and a deepening regional disparity of medical resources.
According to government sources and local media reports, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is considering increasing the annual medical school enrollment quota by more than 1,000. The administration is widely expected to unveil the quota hike plan as early as Thursday, with the new limit to be applied starting in 2025.
If finalized, the plan is expected to trigger protests from groups representing doctors, which have publicly opposed a hike, claiming that the government should focus instead on measures to more effectively allocate physicians to deficient fields and increase compensation, rather than simply increasing the number of medical students.
Doctors say their main concern is that expanding the number of placements for medical schools could adversely affect the quality of education and training.
But the government believes that increasing the quota would be an unavoidable choice to guarantee better public access to medical services, with some media outlets reporting that the president aims to keep increasing the annual quota to as much as 3,000 before his tenure ends in May of 2027.
On Sunday, senior officials at the ruling People Power Party, the government and the presidential office discussed the thorny issue at a policy consultative meeting. The participants, including Bang Ki-sun, minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, agreed at the meeting to review the issue carefully to improve the accessibility of medical services.
According to the Ministry of Education, there are 40 medical schools in Korea, with the total admissions quota remaining unchanged at 3,058 since 2006.
Among the 40 medical schools, 13 ― nearly one third ― are located in Seoul and nearby Incheon and surrounding Gyeonggi Province, which comprise the Seoul metropolitan area. In contrast, South Jeolla Province and Sejong City have no medical schools.
Against this backdrop, there have been increasing calls to raise the number of medical schools and students, which could help improve the regional disparity and also help address serious shortages of surgeons, obstetricians and pediatricians in the country.
Such calls have gotten a boost recently following a number of cases where patients died in ambulances while being transported to other emergency rooms after being rejected by hospitals that cited a shortage of doctors or beds.
Regarding the issue, a health ministry official said, “The government has yet to decide on how much the quota will increase annually. The timing of the announcement has yet to be decided.”
Collective action by doctors
Medical residents at Seoul National University Hospital stage a protest in front of the Ministry of Health and Welfare building in Sejong City in this Sept. 1, 2020 photo. Doctors staged fierce protests against the Moon Jae-in government’s proposal at the time to raise the medical student quota to 4,000. Yonhap
In response to the government’s move, the Korea Medical Association (KMA) is set to hold a meeting Tuesday attended by representatives of its 16 regional offices as well as interns and residents.
During the meeting, the participants will discuss how they will protest the government’s plan.
“If the government makes an announcement without sufficient consultation with the KMA, we have no choice but to stage fierce protests as we did in 2020,” Lee Pil-soo, who heads the association, said, referring to the previous Moon Jae-in government’s proposal to raise the medical student quota by 4,000 over 10 years by establishing new state-run medical schools in rural regions.
That proposal was eventually retracted following fierce protests by physicians, as thousands of trainee doctors staged a walkout, while medical students boycotted the state license exam.