Conflict Over Expansion of Medical School Quotas, Decision on Medical Residents’ Return Today

The final decision on whether the medical residents, who had announced a mass resignation in opposition to the expansion of medical school quotas, will return to work will be made today.

Attention is focused on how many of the approximately 10,000 medical residents will return to the field.

According to the government and medical community on the 15th, non-returning medical residents will be officially processed as resigned if they do not return to the field by noon or midnight today.

On the 11th, major training hospitals requested medical residents to notify them of their intention to return or resign by today.

The medical community expects that a large number of medical residents will not return.

This is because the conflict between the medical residents and the government continues, and there are disagreements regarding the timing of the resignations.

Medical residents are demanding the withdrawal of the government’s administrative order and an apology as conditions for their return, and they insist that the resignation should take effect in February next year.

On the other hand, the government has stated that it will recognize the resignation date from June this year.

Park Dan, president of the Korea Intern Resident Association, expressed support for medical students’ intention to refuse the national examination through his social media.

He emphasized, “Our demands are firm and clear,” and added, “I will not return either.”

In this situation, medical residents who wish to return are likely to hesitate due to concerns about being stigmatized.

Additionally, the government’s regulation that prohibits returning to the same year and specialty within one year after resignation, with an exception allowing training at other hospitals from September, is also being pointed out as a factor preventing the return of medical residents.

Some in the medical community are criticizing this as a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy.

As of the 11th, the attendance rate of medical residents in all 211 training hospitals was only 8%.

In the metropolitan area, medical residents in popular departments such as dermatology, ophthalmology, and plastic surgery are likely to return, but those in essential medical departments such as surgery and internal medicine are not expected to return.

After finalizing the return or resignation of medical residents today, training hospitals must confirm the number of insufficient medical residents and apply for the recruitment of medical residents for the second half of the year to the Training Environment Evaluation Committee under the Minister of Health and Welfare by the 17th.

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