"Increasing the Number of Regional Physicians Alone Will Not Solve the Problem"...Warning From the Medical Community

Criticism of Limits of Regional Physician System at KMA Medical Policy Research Institute Forum
"Injecting Manpower Without Reforming the Healthcare Delivery System Is a Social Waste"
"Punitive Regulations Such as License Revocation Will Accelerate

The medical community has criticized the government's proposed "regional physician system," arguing that it is fixated on compulsory personnel placement rather than addressing the structural defects of regional healthcare, and therefore is highly likely to end in a "huge failure."

Participants are discussing at a forum titled "Is the Regional Physician System Okay as Is?" hosted by the Korean Medical Association Medical Policy Research Institute on the 25th at the Korean Medical Association Hall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jo Inkyung

The Korean Medical Association Medical Policy Research Institute held a medical policy forum on the 25th under the theme "Is the Regional Physician System Okay as Is?" to share on-the-ground concerns regarding the government's phased increase in medical school enrollment and its plan to operate a regional physician track in non-Seoul areas.

Kim Changsoo, Policy Director of the Korean Medical Association and Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine, who delivered the keynote presentation, said, "Under the current Regional Physician Act in Korea, doctors are required to serve a compulsory 10-year term, and if they fail to fulfill it, their medical licenses are revoked and all subsidies are clawed back," criticizing it as "the most rigid and punitive, and the most institutionally stringent regulatory system."

Kim went on to warn, "A bill that has lost flexibility and trust may appear to be successful in terms of numbers, but in the end it will incur social costs in the form of physicians leaving and lawsuits."

Referring to Taiwan's failed case of "publicly funded physicians," he argued, "Taiwan limited the program to supplying personnel to medically underserved and island regions, and based it on the principle of minimal intervention to secure public interest. The more coercive the system becomes, the more physicians will inevitably shun regional postings." He added, "The problem is trying to compensate for systemic defects solely by injecting more personnel," and stressed, "Over the remaining six years before the first regional physicians are produced, reforming the healthcare delivery system and making reimbursement rates more realistic must be the top policy priorities."

Kim Yuil, Professor at Chonnam National University and Director of Regional Healthcare Policy at the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, cited past examples of public health doctors and explained, "The appropriateness of placement has a decisive impact on satisfaction and clinical performance." He suggested that, because the current placement system centered on mid-level medical service areas is already raising equity issues depending on the region and could lead to future mismatches between specialties and local needs, it should be expanded to broader medical service regions to secure greater flexibility.

Professor Kim also urged institutional measures such as raising the coinsurance rate for patients with mild conditions who use medical services in the Seoul metropolitan area, saying, "If we do not resolve the problem of patients flocking to the capital region, assigning regional physicians trained at great taxpayer expense will be meaningless."

In the subsequent discussion, harsh criticism of the regional physician system as a whole continued. Choi Anna, Director of Gangneung Medical Center, said, "It is contradictory to claim that mortality in regional healthcare is high and then respond by creating regional physicians," arguing, "Rather than imposing regulations on individual doctors, we need practical incentives such as criminal immunity and tax cuts for regional medical institutions."

Director Choi asserted, "The regional physician system will be a 'huge failure' that fails to deliver results despite massive budget投入," and warned, "The resulting fiscal burden will ultimately fall on our citizens, especially the younger generations of the future."

Jung Sungsoo, Professor at Chungnam National University and Vice President of the Korean Society of Medical Education, pointed out, "During the period of conflict between the government and the medical community, many medical students who had been admitted to regional medical schools chose to retake the entrance exam in order to transfer to medical schools in the Seoul metropolitan area or to shed the image of being part of the expanded enrollment cohort. In the same way, students selected next year under the regional physician system are highly likely to choose to retake the exam out of concern about the social stigma of being seen as 'lacking ability'." He added, "If the training environment is poor, an unhealthy cycle will repeat in which undertrained doctors leave the regions as soon as their 10-year service term ends."

Jang Woojin, a 2024-entry student at Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, said, "There are already concerns about discrimination between students admitted through the general track and those admitted through the regional physician track," and reported, "Policies that force and pressure medical students to work in specific regions are actually creating resentment even among students who had originally hoped to work in non-metropolitan areas."

Ahn Deokseon, Director of the Medical Policy Research Institute, said, "As the regional physician track is being expanded in tandem with the announcement of increased medical school enrollment, we should be carefully examining key issues such as field acceptance, potential violations of basic rights, training problems, and the capabilities of regional medical institutions. Yet government policy is fixated solely on numbers and is distorting the system," emphasizing, "Rather than centralized control, a decentralized governance model in which local governments, regional medical institutions, and experts participate must take root for the regional physician system to survive."