Government-Medical Sector, Is Dialogue Possible?... Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee Recommendations Due Today

7 out of 13 Committee Members to Be Recommended by Medical Organizations
5 Physician Groups Including KMA Declare Non-Participation in Committee

As the deadline for recommending members to the Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee proposed by the government to the medical community closes on the 18th, attention is focused on whether the medical community will participate in the dialogue.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is accepting expert recommendations to participate in the committee until this day. Earlier, on the 30th of last month, during a briefing on the progress of medical reform, the ministry explained the plan for the Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee, stating that to scientifically and professionally estimate the appropriate scale of medical personnel considering mid- to long-term medical demand, separate workforce supply and demand estimation committees will be established for each profession, including doctors, nurses, Korean medicine doctors, dentists, and pharmacists. Among these, doctors and nurses will be the target professions for the first-year estimation, and the committee will be formed first.

The workforce supply and demand estimation committee for each profession will consist of a total of 13 members, with 7 experts recommended by the supplier organizations of the respective professions to constitute the majority. The remaining 6 members will be filled by 3 experts recommended by patient and consumer organizations as demand-side representatives and 3 experts recommended by related research institutions.

The major supplier organizations related to doctors proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare include 10 groups: the Korean Medical Association, the Korean Intern Resident Association, the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, the National Council of Medical School Professors, the Emergency Committee of National Medical School Professors, the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Medical Schools (KAMC), the Korean Medical College and Medical School Student Association, the Korean Hospital Association, the Council of Tertiary Hospitals, and the Korean Association of Small and Medium Hospitals.

Typically, government committees avoid assigning more than half of the members to a specific group to ensure fairness, making the composition of this Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee unusual. Minister Cho Kyu-hong of the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, "We have reviewed with an open mind to find common ground with the medical community regarding the composition of the supply and demand estimation discussion body and the discussion agenda," and added, "We expect active participation from supplier organizations including medical associations, demand-side organizations, and related research institutions."

However, at the 17th Joint Medical Meeting held on the 2nd, five medical organizations?the Korean Medical Association, the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Medical Schools (KAMC), the Emergency Committee of National Medical School Professors (Jeon-ui-bi), and the National Council of Medical School Professors (Jeon-ui-gyo-hyeop)?declared they would not participate in the Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee and continued to demand a complete cancellation of the medical school expansion for the 2025 academic year.

The government has stated it will wait for committee member recommendations until this day. If recommendations from the medical community are ultimately not made, the government plans to launch the Nursing Workforce Estimation Committee first.

Minister Cho also said at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on the previous day regarding the doctors' collective action, "Since the supply and demand estimation results derived through discussions among experts from various fields will form the basis for workforce policy establishment, we ask for active participation from supplier organizations including medical associations, demand-side organizations, and related research institutions."

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