Expanded Participation of Residents in the Training Environment Evaluation Committee Starting November

From 3 to 5 Expert Committee Members... Amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the 'Jeongong-ui Act'

The government will increase the number of residents participating in the Training Environment Evaluation Committee. This reflects the residents' request to increase the number of resident members.

On the 23rd, Kwon Byung-gi, the Essential Medical Support Officer at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) briefing on doctors' collective action, "Among the 13 members of the Training Environment Evaluation Committee, currently only 2 are resident members. To expand this, we are revising the enforcement decree of the 'Act on the Improvement of Training Environment and Status of Residents (Resident Act)' to increase the number of expert members appointed by the Minister of Health and Welfare from 3 to 5."

The Training Environment Evaluation Committee is a deliberative body established within the Ministry of Health and Welfare to discuss overall policies and systems related to resident training. Recently, the Ministry announced a legislative notice for the revision of the Resident Act enforcement decree to strengthen the committee's professional capacity by expanding the number of expert members appointed by the Minister of Health and Welfare to 5.

Kwon explained, "The legislative notice is ongoing until August 12," adding, "We aim to complete the revision promptly and expand the number of resident members in the Training Environment Evaluation Committee as early as November."

The Resident Act allows the committee to be composed of up to 15 members, but it is currently operating with 13 members according to the enforcement decree. Once the decree is revised, the number of members will increase to 15.

Currently, the 13 members of the Training Environment Evaluation Committee consist of 9 members recommended by medical organizations such as the Korean Medical Association (3 members), the Korean Hospital Association (3 members), and the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences (3 members); 3 expert members appointed by the Minister of Health and Welfare specializing in training environment evaluation; and 1 ex officio member from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Except for the ex officio member, all 12 members are medical doctors.

Kwon said, "The legislative notice for the enforcement decree revision was issued to expand resident recommendations," adding, "The method of recommending residents as experts appointed by the Minister of Health and Welfare was decided considering the number of recommendations from other medical organizations such as the KMA and the Hospital Association."