The size of physician training to be applied after 2027 is expected to be finalized and announced next week.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 6th held the sixth Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee meeting at the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service expert advisory conference room in Seocho District, Seoul, to discuss the scale of physician training and plans to support essential medical personnel.
Minister Jung Eun-kyeong said in opening remarks before the meeting, "I hope we can announce comprehensive policy tasks to support essential medical personnel in regions along with the number of physicians to be trained going forward at the meeting to be held next week." The seventh committee meeting is scheduled for Feb. 10.
The Minister explained, "After agreeing on the criteria for deliberating physician training, we have been working to make them concrete," adding, "At the third meeting, it was decided that newly produced physicians would be trained as regional doctors."
She continued, "The newly decided physician training size will be applied for five years starting in 2027, and a recalculation will be conducted in 2029," and said, "While respecting the outlook presented by the supply-demand projection committee, we are narrowing the scope of discussion by considering the strengths and weaknesses of each model and changes in the future environment."
The Minister also said, "Putting together views from medical education sites, there are many voices saying the medical school quota should be increased in line with the projection results to strengthen essential regional care," and added, "There were also comments that specific support measures must be prepared in light of the difficulties on the education front."
At this sixth meeting, remaining issues will be discussed, including the pros and cons of each supply-demand projection model and whether to introduce an upper cap to prevent abrupt quota fluctuations.
At the previous fifth meeting, the committee narrowed the projected physician shortage for 2037 to 4,260 to 4,800. Of this, the government is reviewing a plan to exclude the 600 per year to be supplied through the public graduate school of medicine to be established in 2030 and the six-year regional medical schools, and then spread the remainder over five years. A simple conversion suggests an annual increase of 732 to 840 would be needed.
However, opposition from the medical community remains a variable. Physician groups are confronting the government, even raising the possibility of collective action. Attention is on whether young doctors, who previously resisted the expansion push with mass resignations and leaves of absence, will again escalate their struggle.
According to an internal survey recently conducted by the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), 95% of responding residents said the current decision on medical school quotas is "wrong," and 75% responded that "active response is necessary." KIRA has delivered the results to the Korean Medical Association Organization.
The Minister said the same day, "Simply expanding training size will not solve every problem," while emphasizing, "Securing an adequate number of physicians is an important starting point for restoring essential regional care."
She added, "If the direction is sorted out at this meeting, we will likely be able to announce both the physician training size and a comprehensive package to support essential regional care at next week's meeting."