"I will expand the medical school quota"
"The scale of quota expansion has not been decided"
Amid the government's plan to expand the admission quota for medical schools, on the 25th, Cho Kyu-hong, Minister of Health and Welfare, stated that the minimum quota for small-scale medical schools should be at least 80 students.
At the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee's audit session that morning, Minister Cho responded to a question about plans to allocate quotas to private medical schools by saying, "There are 17 medical schools with quotas of 50 or fewer students among all medical schools," and added, "Experts have advised that to educate more efficiently, the quota should be at least 80 students, and I reported this to the President."
He also said, "When increasing the quota, the university's capacity is important, and even if that is possible, how much the staff can be expanded is also crucial, so a precise investigation is necessary," and added, "We will ensure that the medical school quotas are expanded without any issues starting from the 2025 admissions."
The domestic medical school quota was 3,507 students as of 2000. At that time, the government reduced the quota by about 10% (351 students) over four years to appease doctors opposing the separation of prescribing and dispensing medicines. Since then, the number has decreased further and has been maintained at 3,058 students for 18 years since 2006.
However, recently, inside and outside the government, there have been speculations about expanding the number of medical students to '1,000 plus alpha' based on the fact that the number of doctors per 1,000 people in Korea is much lower than the OECD average (3.7 doctors). Regarding the specific scale, Minister Cho said, "We have not yet decided on the scale of quota expansion," adding, "On a macro level, we will look at supply and demand trends and the number of doctors per 1,000 people in the OECD, and on a micro level, we will consider the particularities of each region and specialty."
Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong and Vice Minister Lee Ki-il are listening to questions at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee's audit on the 25th. [Image source=Yonhap News]
In response to the question, "The Korean Medical Association considers the number of 350 people, which was reduced in 2000, as the maximum limit for expansion. Is that correct?" he answered, "I have neither heard nor been informed of such an opinion."
Regarding mandatory service plans for doctors, Minister Cho stated, "I think institutional measures to have doctors work in medically underserved areas are necessary, but since mandatory service has pros and cons, it needs to be carefully reviewed."
He also acknowledged, "I recognize the need to increase the number of doctors in regions," and said, "Whether to create a separate model like a public medical school or to train regional doctors through the current national medical school model requires sufficient discussion." He then emphasized, "We will strengthen consultations with the medical community and create policy packages to prevent the government plan from being derailed again as it was in 2020 due to the doctors' strike."
Meanwhile, Minister Cho is scheduled to announce follow-up measures for promoting regional and essential medical innovation strategies at 2 p.m. on the 26th.
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