Trainee Doctors Urged to Avert Looming Collective Actions Over Med School Quota Hike

Empty wheelchairs are lined up in front of a hospital in Seoul on Feb. 12, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)

SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The health ministry on Tuesday called for trainee doctors to avert looming collective actions in protest of a plan to increase the number of medical students by 2,000.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo also said the government was “relieved” as an association of trainee doctors made no announcement about its collective actions after all-night discussions earlier in the day.

“We urge doctors to make a resolute decision to protect the patients by their side,” Park told reporters. “The government will continue to make efforts to reform the medical sector to make hospitals a sustainable workplace.”

Overnight, the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), a major doctors’ organization, convened a meeting of representatives to discuss their actions over the planned increase in the medical school enrollment quota, but no announcement was made.

“I am relieved that there is no announcement on plans to engage in collective actions (by KIRA),” Park said, calling for doctors not to take advantage of patients’ lives through collective leave or resignations.

Doctors and the government have shown signs of heading for a collision course over last week’s decision to add 2,000 to the country’s medical school enrollment quota next year, a sharp rise from the current 3,058 seats.

South Korea has been pushing to raise the quota amid the country’s chronic shortage of doctors in crucial areas, as medical professionals tend to prefer practicing in nonessential areas with lower risks.

On Monday, the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol said that the government’s decision to increase the medical school quota is “irreversible,” denouncing doctors’ threats of collective action as unjustifiable.

(Yonhap)