South Korea is struggling with a shortage of residents in essential medical fields...Government and doctors' organizations hold talks

The South Korean government held discussions with the Korean Medical Association (Mikyo) regarding the issue of a shortage of residents in essential medical fields. As a result, an agreement was reached on basic issues such as improving the working environment.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Medical Association held the 21st Medical Issues Council meeting in Seoul on the afternoon of the 13th, and discussed issues in the medical community, such as increasing the number of medical students. ``The government's
"Despite our intentions, as a result of recruiting trainees for the first half of next year, most hospitals failed to secure seats for essential medical subjects such as pediatrics and adolescents."
"Do you believe that the number of trainee doctors who handle essential medical care will increase just by making it easier?" he asked. He added, ``Even the so-called Big 5 hospitals are failing to secure capacity,'' adding, ``Essential medical care is collapsing.''
"We must resolve the causes of high risk, low return (low compensation for risk) and excessive punishment, and prioritize improving the environment at training hospitals."
According to the results of the application for first-year trainee doctors in the first half of 2024 (targeted at 140 training hospitals) released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 7th, there is a capacity of 205 for the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents.
With 53 people applying, the applicant rate (25.9%) was the lowest. Other essential medical departments such as emergency department (79.6%) and obstetrics and gynecology (67.4%) were also unable to meet their capacity.
Regarding this, Jeong Kyung-shil, a health and medical policy official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, ``The government has made various efforts, but it has not been strong enough to produce results all at once.''
``We will reorganize the human resources system so that doctors do not lose motivation, such as changing the human resources structure of hospitals that rely on trainee doctors to center on specialists and improving the continuous working hours of trainee doctors.''
Regarding the increase in the number of medical schools, Policy Minister Chung referred to the past meetings of the Medical Concerns Council and explained, ``The government did not unilaterally promote an increase in the number of medical schools.'' Also, “Now
After that, the government will continue to discuss the scale of expanding the number of doctors at the Medical Concerns Council, and decisions will be made through the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee, which includes members from all walks of life.
The government and the Medical Association first aim to ensure that trainee doctors receive high-quality training and education and grow into specialists with sufficient clinical ability.
In order to improve the quality of medical training, we will improve the environment such as reducing excessive continuous working hours, manage hospital human resources centered on specialists, enhance the training process and supervising specialist system, expand support for training costs, and strengthen the rights and interests of trainee doctors.
They agreed to promote the policy.