The New Semester Has Started... But Medical Students and Residents Haven't Returned for 2 Consecutive Years

Some Medical Schools, Including Catholic University, Postpone March Semester Start Due to Medical Students' Refusal to Register for Courses
Number of Doctors at 'Big 5 Hospitals' Drops by 36%... Residents Down 90%, Interns Down 97%

"I have paid the tuition, and since (first-year) leave of absence is not allowed, I plan to register for classes, but the semester start schedule itself has not been announced yet." (New medical student in the Seoul metropolitan area)

"The March recruitment for residents is all over, and seniors who found jobs as general physicians are receiving their salaries regularly, so it doesn't seem urgent... I am just waiting to be able to enlist in the military soon." (Resigning resident)

Yonhap News

Although the new semester has started, most medical students and residents have not returned to universities and training hospitals. Some medical schools have postponed the semester start to prevent a large-scale expulsion of students, while tertiary hospitals have increased the number of Physician Assistant (PA) nurses to fill the medical staff gap instead of residents.

According to the government and medical community on the 4th, amid ongoing conflicts over the expansion of medical school quotas, the government and ruling and opposition parties plan to form a Medical Workforce Supply and Demand Estimation Committee (Estimation Committee) next year to determine the medical school quotas and find a solution to the conflict. However, although the bill related to the Estimation Committee passed last week at the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee's 1st Bill Review Subcommittee, the medical community opposes the content of the bill itself, so difficulties are expected in forming the committee and its actual launch.

The government's determination to promote medical reform is firm. On the 6th, it plans to hold a forum on establishing a safety net for medical accidents in essential medical fields and gather stakeholders' opinions, aiming to announce the second phase of medical reform implementation plans within this month.

On the other hand, resistance from medical students is also strong. According to data on 'Medical School Course Registration Status for the First Semester of 2025' submitted by the Ministry of Education to Jin Sun-mi, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, as of the 25th of last month, out of 40 medical schools nationwide, 10 schools had no course registrations from any students in the first to fourth years of pre-medical studies. Consequently, some universities have postponed the semester start by 2 to 8 weeks, making it highly likely that normal classes will not be conducted this semester. Currently, medical schools at Kangwon National University, Kosin University, Ulsan University, and Jeju University have postponed their semester start dates to mid to late this month, and the Catholic University medical school postponed its semester start to the 28th of next month. In particular, most medical schools do not allow freshmen to take a leave of absence, so students may register for courses initially and then refuse to attend classes.

An official from a medical school said, "I understand that many medical schools have prepared classrooms and started construction of practice rooms to normalize classes. Universities are even considering plans to have both the 2024 and 2025 cohorts attend classes simultaneously or to prioritize the 2024 cohort for one semester, but the situation does not look promising," he said.

Most training hospitals, including university hospitals, have almost no residents returning in the first half of this year and must operate with a small number of staff. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, as of the end of last year, the number of residents at the Seoul Big 5 hospitals (Samsung Seoul, Seoul National University, Seoul St. Mary's, Seoul Asan, Severance Hospitals) was 213, a 89.9% decrease compared to 2,114 residents the previous year, and interns numbered 17, a 97.3% decrease from 628 the previous year. Accordingly, the total number of doctors at these hospitals was 4,570, a 35.9% decrease from 7,132 the previous year.

Instead, since most hospitals participating in the government's tertiary hospital structural transformation support project are expanding severe care centered on specialists and PA nurses, it is analyzed that the gap left by residents is being filled by expanding PA nurses.

An official from a general hospital said, "After nearly a year of training and deploying PA nurses in medical settings, there are many cases where they perform roles previously done by residents in operating rooms, such as suturing," but added, "However, these PA nurses also face significant work fatigue, and there are many issues to resolve, such as improving their treatment and legal responsibility for medical acts."

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