This Year, Only 269 New Emission Doctors... Intern Recruitment Expected to Face Difficulties

Final Results Announced for the 89th Medical Licensing Examination
Number of New Doctors Plummets to Less Than 10 Percent of Last Year
Intern Application Rate Expected to Remain Low Next Month

The number of newly licensed doctors this year was found to be less than one-tenth of last year's figure. As a result, the application rate for the first half intern recruitment scheduled for next month is also expected to be low.

Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News

According to the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute on the 22nd, out of 382 candidates who took the 89th Medical Licensing Examination (MLE), 269 passed both the practical and written tests. The pass rate was 70.4%. The number of final passers this year is only 8.7% of last year's 3,081.

The MLE is conducted for fourth-year medical students and graduates of foreign medical schools, and every year, the number of passers has been slightly more than the medical school quota, in the low 3,000s.

The sharp decrease in passers this year is due to the fact that most medical students chose to take a leave of absence amid intensified medical-government conflicts following the government's announcement to increase medical school quotas in February last year. Originally, about 3,200 candidates were eligible to take the exam, but only about 10% of them actually took it.

With the failure to properly produce new doctors, disruptions are expected in the training of residents and specialists as well. Each training hospital plans to recruit interns for the first half of the year on July 3rd and 4th, targeting those who passed the MLE and interns who resigned last year.

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