Non-Capital Region Allocated 80% of Medical School Expansion...Presidential Office Says "17 Medical Schools Are Too Small in Scale"

Regional Medical School Graduates, Settlement Rate Up to 80%
"Increase Focused on Small Regional Medical Schools"

As the government is in the process of allocating next year's medical school quotas to each medical school, it has been decided that 20% of the increased personnel will be distributed to the metropolitan area, and 80% to non-metropolitan areas. The intention is to place a significant portion of the increased personnel in non-metropolitan regions to reduce the concentration of patients at Seoul's "Big 5" hospitals and to address the medical disparity between regions.

According to the Presidential Office on the 14th, the government is currently working on how many students to allocate to each medical school as part of a plan to increase medical school quotas by 2,000 next year as a medical reform measure. Despite strong opposition from the medical community, including collective resignation of residents, it is known that the government’s policy to proceed with the quota allocation as scheduled remains unchanged.

A Presidential Office official told Asia Economy in a phone interview, "The retention rate of those who graduated from medical schools in their respective regions is very high, reaching up to 80%," adding, "Since the rate of staying in the region is high, the allocation is understood to be region-focused, and the work will be carried out according to that principle." The official also explained, "The allocation principle remains the same as before," stating, "The basic principle is to allocate mainly to provincial areas and to small-sized universities."

The plan is to concentrate the increased personnel in small regional medical schools to enhance the competitiveness of base university medical schools while increasing the number of doctors in the regions to strengthen regional healthcare.

The official added, "Among the 40 medical schools nationwide, 17 have an admission quota of fewer than 50 students," explaining, "These 17 medical schools are so small that it is hard to call them universities, and the increase will be focused on these small medical schools."

Medical staff are talking at Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 12th, when professors at Seoul National University College of Medicine decided to resign en masse. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@