Gov’t presses on with med school quota hike
Doctors’ group claims government passed point of no return
The government accelerated the process of implementing a controversial medical school quota expansion plan starting next year by allocating 82 percent of the additional 2,000 admission seats to 27 universities located outside the greater Seoul area on Wednesday, despite intensifying protests from the medical community.
The remaining 18 percent of new slots went to five universities in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon. No allocation was made for eight schools in Seoul, given that the capital is already well served and represented, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said.
The announcement came amid a protracted confrontation between the government and doctors over the plan to add more slots to enrollment quotas at medical schools. The total admission quota of the 40 medical schools in Korea has remained unchanged at 3,058 since 2006.
Over 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors, comprising interns and resident doctors, have walked off the job, saying that the policy will compromise the quality of medical training and education, a claim the government disputes.
The latest announcement indicated the government’s unwavering position regarding the quota hike plan. But the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the nation’s largest coalition of doctors, said that the government had passed “the point of no return.”
Medical professors at Yonsei University and affiliate Severance Hospital called for the withdrawal of the allocation decision that they claim “completely ignored the educational environment of the country.”
“The unilateral decision is merely a political maneuver by the government ahead of the general elections, and it is anticipated to only sow confusion in the field of medical education,” they said in a statement.
The KMA and other relevant groups representing senior and junior doctors are expected to mobilize their last and most extreme move to date, including a general strike, to stop the policy from going ahead, adding to already mounting concerns over disruptions to medical services.
During a media briefing, the education minister noted that the allocation decision was made based on the primary goal of the government’s medical school quota hike policy, which was aimed at tackling deepening regional disparities regarding the quality and availability of health care services.
“The medical school quota hike will mark the beginning of the medical system’s reform and serve as an opportunity to resolve regional disparities,” Lee said.
The education ministry decided on its policy direction after receiving applications from each university and consulting with experts.
The ministry allocated 1,639 additional placements to 27 universities located outside the greater Seoul area. This will increase the number of medical students in those regions to 3,662, or 72.4 percent of the total, from the current 2,023, or 66.2 percent.
To five universities in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, 361 additional seats were distributed.
Addressing the nation, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stressed, once again, that boosting the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 is a minimum necessary measure aimed at addressing the shortage of doctors.
“Education conditions of the country’s medical schools can fully accommodate additional students,” Han said, refuting the contention from the doctors’ community.
He vowed to offer a variety of pan-national support measures for the quota’s expansion, including the recruitment of 1,000 more professors for national medical schools.