Regional med schools prepare to increase admissions quotas

With the government considering last week's appellate court ruling as a legitimization of its medical recruitment expansion policy, regional universities are clearing the path to add admission slots by amending academic codes.

Medical professors at Kangwon National University picket in front of a meeting hall on campus in Gangwon on Tuesday, demanding the admissions quota hike in medical schools to be scrapped. [NEWS1]

With the government considering last week's appellate court ruling as a legitimization of its medical recruitment expansion policy, national universities are clearing the path to add admission slots to their medical schools.

Pusan National University on Tuesday passed a motion to revise its academic code and decided to reflect the increased enrollment seats, overturning its previous decision of rejecting the agenda. The school is likely to admit 163 students for its incoming class for the 2025 academic year, adding 38 new slots.

On the same day, Kangwon National University and Chungbuk National University also approved an amendment of their academic codes to entail an expanded admissions quota. The admissions of Kangwon National University and Chungbuk National University are set to increase by 42 and 76 seats, respectively.

Despite the government's final warning on Monday, more than 94 percent of junior doctors are continuing their walkout, according to the Health Ministry's announcement on Tuesday.

During an appearance in a local radio program, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said on Tuesday that “very few” junior doctors returned to their training hospitals even after the government aired a final warning of a potential delay in their career development.

As of Tuesday, 659 junior doctors are currently working at hospitals, including some 31 who had returned between Friday and Monday. There are more than 13,000 junior doctors registered nationwide.

A total of 2,910 junior doctors in the third or fourth year of training are due to take a specialized medical license exam next year. However, their failure to return by Monday disqualifies them from the test, as they cannot fulfill the training period requirement.

In short, the country will experience an undersupply of thousands of specialized physicians and doctors.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo presides over a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on Tuesday. [THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND WELFARE]

On Tuesday, Park asked the non-returning junior doctors to make a “rational judgment” and have the “courage” to return to the hospitals.

The minister’s remarks seemingly address the fear of possible retaliation from fellow junior doctors for going against the collective walkout.

Park also resurfaced the possibility of penalizing non-returning junior doctors, saying that a disciplinary measure is “inevitable.”

He said the ministry will "review each individual's reason for their absence" in detail and “differentiate [between] those who have returned and who have not" in the aftermath of the walkout.

In a briefing on Tuesday, Park said the problem is a “stale situation where no junior doctors [are acting] to resolve” the current impasse.

He expressed difficulties in talking with junior doctors whose protesting strategy appears to be “non-engagement," adding that there was also no back-channel communication. He hoped that junior doctors would participate in a dialogue with the government, saying it could allow them to “freely deliver their various thoughts.”

Medical professionals walk on a compound of a general hospital in downtown Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

While the government deems that the debate over the quota increase is finalized per the court's ruling last week, doctors and medical professors are continuing their relentless action to block the admissions hike.

On Monday, a nationwide medical professors’ group — the Medical Professors Association of Korea — submitted a petition to the court, claiming the “excessive admissions quota hike by more than 10 percent is unacceptable under today’s educational circumstances.”

A total of 20,742 medical professors joined the petition as signatories.

The association wrote that public health would remain intact without the quota hike, if the government sets “well-grounded and sound policies for essential medical fields.”

On the same day, the association issued a statement asking educational authorities to halt the review of admission seats at medical schools and postpone an announcement of the results — which is slated to be made public on May 31 — until the Supreme Court’s ruling.

After Seoul High Court’s ruling last week, the plaintiffs, mainly doctors and medical students, decided to appeal and wait for the nation’s top Supreme Court to rule on the quota hike.

They said that educational authorities should be patient and not rush to the decision in a “country governed by law.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]