- After the Korean Medical Association Emergency Committee insisted on the 22nd to suspend medical school recruitment,
“It is impossible to train 6,000 or 7,500 people”… Realism is lacking
Recruitment of majors for the first half of next year will also begin next month.
A barometer of the size of majors returning next year
The conflict between the medical community and the government appears to be deepening again as the Emergency Response Committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) calls for a “suspension of medical school recruitment.” As major recruitment is scheduled for the first half of next year, the legislative conflict is once again entering a complicated phase.
The Medical Association Emergency Committee held a briefing on the 22nd and argued, “Stopping medical school recruitment is a way to minimize side effects,” and added, “It is impossible to suddenly educate 6,000 or 7,500 people in an environment that can educate 3,000 people.”
The number of 7,500 students claimed by the Medical Association Emergency Committee is the 3,000 first-year medical students who chose to take a leave of absence this year, plus 4,500 first-year medical students who will enter next year as the government increases the number of students. Even if we recruit the same number of students as this year without increasing the number of students, 3,000 students will be admitted and 6,000 students will need to take classes next year. Since it is impossible to educate on this scale with the current educational infrastructure, the idea is to not recruit new students at all and educate only the 3,000 students who will return to school next year.
Park Hyeong-wook, chairman of the medical association emergency committee, cited past cases of Sejong University and the University of Tokyo in Japan. In 1990, when a large-scale grade retention incident occurred due to an on-campus dispute, Sejong University had only 7 departments recruit new students the following year, and 24 departments suspended recruitment. The University of Tokyo also skipped the selection of new students the following year due to campus unrest in 1968. Chairman Park said, “I think in our society, only entrance exams are important and there is no real interest in education. If medical schools fail to properly educate students, poorly educated doctors will be produced who will treat patients for the rest of their lives.” said.
However, the government and education community are responding that suspending medical school recruitment is unrealistic. After the briefing by the Korean Medical Association Emergency Committee, there has been no official response from the Ministry of Health and Welfare or the Ministry of Education. However, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Joo-ho said in a radio interview on the 20th, “Entrance exams are very important in our society, and they must be predictable and fair according to legal regulations.” He added, “In light of those principles, the government cannot really accept the claims of the medical community.” “I can’t,” he said.
The recruitment of majors for the first half of next year, which begins in early December, also complicates the aspect of the legislative conflict. In early December, the Suryeo Nursing Care Evaluation Committee plans to announce a plan to recruit residents for the first half of next year and begin the recruitment process for each training hospital. The Horizontal Committee is a deliberation body established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to discuss overall matters related to resident training policies and systems.
Through this recruitment, teaching hospitals will select interns and residents who will work and train starting in March of next year. Residents become specialists by completing training, such as one year as an intern and three to four years as a resident, and then taking an exam.
The reason why this recruitment of majors is important is because it is a barometer that can estimate the size of majors returning in the first half of next year. A high application rate means that a large number of residents will return to the medical field in the first half of next year. As the government is aware of this, it is presenting several carrots to increase the support rate.
First, a plan to maintain the capacity of teaching hospitals in the metropolitan area is being discussed. Originally, the plan was to change the allocation ratio between metropolitan and non-metropolitan teaching hospitals from 5.5 to 4.5 to 5 to 5 in order to strengthen local medical care, but the plan was to maintain the current number of students in the metropolitan area next year without reducing it.
We are also considering a plan to apply special provisions to enable a return in March next year. Residents are not allowed to return to the same subject and annual leave within one year after resigning, but the plan is to apply an exception and allow second to fourth year residents to return in March of next year. Since special provisions have already been applied once in the second half of this year, it is expected that they will also be applied in the first half of next year.
There is also a plan to postpone enlistment if a medical resident who has not completed his military service expresses his intention to return. Upon retirement, residents are subject to enlistment in accordance with the Military Service Act and cannot perform military service as regular soldiers. You must fulfill your military service obligations as a military doctor or public health doctor. The problem is that among the medical residents who have resigned, there are currently 3,000 medical officer candidates, which greatly exceeds the military’s annual demand of 1,000. The Military Manpower Administration predicts that it will take up to four years for all of them to enlist.
In a situation where there are many variables surrounding the legislative conflict, it is also of interest how the next election for the president of the Korean Medical Association will be held. With the impeachment of former President Lim Hyun-taek of the Korean Medical Association, a by-election for the next President of the Korean Medical Association will be held from January 2 to 4 next year. Kim Taek-woo, president of the National Metropolitan and Provincial Medical Association, Dong-wook Lee, president of the Gyeonggi Province Medical Association, and former president of the Medical Association Joo Su-ho have declared or are preparing to run, and Kang Hee-kyung, professor of Seoul National University College of Medicine and Seoul National University Hospital and chair of the emergency committee, is also said to be highly likely to run.
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Reporter Jonghyun Lee [email protected]
2024-11-24 01:07:00