Most 'Big 5' Receive Single-Digit Applications... Government Extends Residency Recruitment Period by Two Days

Expectations Rise for More Applicants Over the Weekend
Few Residents Show Willingness to Return

The government has extended the deadline for resident recruitment, who will begin training in March, by two days from the 17th to the 19th.

According to the medical community and the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 17th, the deadline for recruiting first-year residents and senior residents (2nd to 4th year) at 221 training hospitals nationwide (recruitment consolidated from 126 institutions), originally scheduled to close at 5 p.m. on that day, has been changed to the 19th.

A university hospital in Daegu. Photo by Yonhap News

The Ministry of Health and Welfare sent official letters on the same day to each training hospital notifying them of the extension of the resident recruitment schedule. The extension was made at the request of some hospitals, allowing each hospital to accept applications until the 19th. The exact closing time was not specified.

Accordingly, the training hospitals also changed and announced the recruitment deadline to the 19th.

The government applied a special training exemption that does not enforce the restriction preventing residents who resigned from returning to the same specialty and same year within one year in this recruitment. For residents wishing to return, the government also announced that they would allow postponement of military enlistment so that they can complete their training and fulfill their military service obligations. Among these, the enlistment exemption can only be applied to residents applying in this recruitment due to military schedule constraints.

There have been expectations, especially among 4th-year residents who are close to obtaining their specialist certification and residents with remaining military service obligations, that they might return, but the atmosphere on the ground is that there are not many residents willing to come back.

As of this day, the number of applicants for resident recruitment at the so-called 'Big 5' hospitals remains mostly in the single digits. With the extension of the recruitment deadline, there is some hope that the number of applicants might increase slightly over the weekend. On the other hand, given the deep distrust of the government among residents, there are also predictions that the extension of the recruitment deadline will not reverse the situation.

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