Party and Government "Expansion of Medical School Quotas... Student Selection from 2022 Academic Year"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Kang Nahum and Jeon Jinyoung] The ruling party and the government began discussions on the 23rd to expand the quota of medical schools and promote the establishment of public medical schools.

Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, emphasized the expansion of medical personnel at the party-government consultation held at the National Assembly on the morning of the same day, saying, "The outbreak of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) revealed the limitations of our country's overall health and medical system, such as shortages of medical personnel and hospital beds, and regional medical disparities."

He pointed out, "Since the medical school quota has been frozen since 2006, the issue of shortage of medical personnel between regions has been continuously raised. The shortage of medical personnel is also well reflected in the recently published OECD health care statistics," adding, "In our country, the number of clinical doctors, including Korean medicine doctors, is 2.4 per 1,000 people, which is significantly lower than the OECD average of 3.5."

Floor leader Kim said, "The shortage of medical personnel causes imbalances between regions, specialties, and fields. Expanding medical personnel is an essential task for equitable medical welfare," and added, "The Democratic Party will expand medical personnel to strengthen public healthcare and regional medical infrastructure and actively promote the establishment of public medical schools."

Cho Jeong-sik, chairman of the Democratic Party's Policy Committee, also emphasized, "There is a common demand from all sectors that it is urgent to significantly expand medical personnel responsible for on-site quarantine and treatment to respond to infectious disease crises like COVID-19," and said, "The current push to expand medical school quotas and establish public medical schools is the ruling party and government's will to faithfully fulfill the pledges made to the public during the last general election."

Yoo Eun-hye, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, stated, "To achieve the purpose of strengthening medical publicness, we will reasonably allocate medical school quotas so that student selection can begin from the 2022 academic year," and added, "We also plan to establish reasonable allocation criteria after sufficiently gathering opinions from experts in various fields such as medical sciences, engineering, and basic sciences, as well as from the field, to nurture talent in the medical science sector."

Park Neung-hoo, Minister of Health and Welfare, said, "The government plans to temporarily increase medical school admission quotas from the 2022 academic year for the next 10 years to train doctors who can work in regions with shortages of doctors, special medical fields, and biomedical fields," and added, "Along with the necessary medical personnel for the regions, we will strengthen public healthcare policies such as regional additional fees and fostering regional specialized hospitals to ensure that doctors settle in the regions and continue medical activities." He continued, "We plan to establish a public medical school as a specialized military academy to train personnel essential for the national public sector."

The ruling party and government are expected to finalize and announce plans to expand medical school quotas and promote the establishment of public medical schools at the consultation meeting held that day. The expansion of medical personnel is likely to involve selecting 400 more doctors annually for the next 10 years, totaling 4,000 additional medical personnel. Regarding public medical schools, there is a proposal to utilize the 49 quotas of the closed Seonam University medical school to establish one in the Jeonbuk region.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.