Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong discloses the admissions quota for medical schools for 2027 through 2031 at Government Complex Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
After a crisis between the government and doctors under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a new goal to increase the quota for medical students has been set. Increasing annually from 2027 to 2031, the expansion will add 3,342 more seats in total. There is a caveat here: The expanded quota for medical students will be allotted to 32 medical schools outside of Seoul, in a program that links government support for tuition, settlement and training of regional medical students with up to 10 years of mandatory service in the region.
Having experienced medical crises in both 2020 and 2024, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee followed due process to increase transparency in the latest plan to produce more doctors in regional areas. The quota increase estimates were based on deliberations by a panel of 15 health care experts. By designating the expansion quota for 32 regional medical schools, authorities are seemingly attempting to dispel potential opposition from doctors in Seoul. According to data from the National Health Insurance Service, 28 percent of roughly 166,000 doctors in 2023 were concentrated in the capital region.
Doctors have expressed "regret"over the plan.
A major point on which the government and the doctors disagree is the estimated shortage of doctors, tallied at 11,000 in 2024 by the deliberation panel. The doctors look askance at whether the plan is in effect an expansion of the medical school quota posturing as a strengtheningmedical services in remote areas. When the junior doctors walked out of their jobs in 2024, doctors asked for — among other things — a better training environment for junior doctors, especially in larger hospitals, and a more realistic pricing of medical services. These specific issues have yet to be addressed.
The new government scheme rests on newly passed legislation to produce and place more doctors in remote regions. It aligns with President Lee Jae Myung's plan to bring balanced national development across regions, with the pressing need for the government to ensure that essential care is accessible in remote areas. The latter tasks had been prioritized by previous administrations without much luck.
As Korean society ages rapidly, with around one-fifth of its population living in the Seoul metropolitan area, policymakers and doctors working in provincial areas have called for measures to ensure a steady supply of medical workers. In parallel, skeptics have pointed out how medical students have increasingly chosen to enter fields such as dermatology over more essential practices such as pediatrics and emergency care.
In this critical realm, which invariably is about saving lives, the authorities and doctors must compromise to materialize the new enrollment quota. The doctors should not be reflexive in their opposition, drawing from past track records where medical crises tilted the balance in their favor. Wisdom says that we must learn from the past; doctors should decide which lesson they will embrace this time. It is hard to deny the disruption that resulted from the yearlong walkout in 2024, felt both in Seoul and — much more deeply — in regions outside of Seoul.
The angst of that medical crisis is raw in the public's collective memory, unnerving the nation over the possibility of yet another catastrophe unfolding. The policymakers must ensure their new enrollment quota stays true to the goal of expanding regional medical support, and prove it has the will to establish strong post-medical school training infrastructure in areas far from Seoul. Measures to embrace the doctors' demands must also be made in specific detail so that people can continue to receive treatment whenever and wherever they fall sick, without disruption.
Source: Korea Times News
