The Board of Audit and Inspection said on the 27th that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration miscalculated the current shortage of doctors and, based on that, pushed to increase medical school enrollment quotas.

On the morning of the 1st, at a university hospital in Daegu, medical staff, patients, and guardians move through the corridor as a junior doctor who had left in protest against the expansion of medical school enrollment returns./Courtesy of News1

The Board of Audit and Inspection announced key findings of an audit on the process of pushing to increase medical school enrollment quotas that day. This followed a request for an audit by the National Assembly.

In Feb. last year, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration said it would increase medical school enrollment quotas by 2,000 a year for five years starting that year, for a total of 10,000. At the time, the Health Ministry said its estimate showed a shortage of 5,000 doctors currently and 10,000 by 2035. It also said the 5,000 shortfall would be addressed through reallocating personnel, and the 10,000 would be added through an increase in quotas.

However, the Board of Audit and Inspection said the Health Ministry used an inappropriate method to calculate the current shortage of 5,000 doctors. It said the ministry misread the shortage of doctors in medically underserved areas as the nationwide shortage. It also noted there was insufficient consideration of demographic factors such as a low birthrate.

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, then-Health Minister Cho Kyu-hong proposed increasing the quota by 500 a year. However, former President Yoon Suk-yeol was quoted as saying it should be increased by at least 1,000. As the scale was later expanded, then-Policy Chief Lee Kwan-sub instructed Cho that a plan to increase by 2,000 would be preferable, and it was subsequently decided that way, the Board of Audit and Inspection said.

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