President Yoon Suk-yeol: resounding defeat

On the face of it, the plan by South Korea’s president Yoon Suk-yeol to increase the number of doctors being trained at the country’s medical schools sounded like a winning way to get the public onside ahead of a parliamentary election.

In reality, by joining the long line of politicians who have tried to change the status quo surrounding medical admissions, Yoon further turned the public against him, contributing to the resounding defeat his party, the People Power Party, suffered in the recent election (April) to retain control of parliament. In South Korea, it seems, attempts to reform medical education are doomed to fail.

The government’s plan to increase capacity by 2,000, announced in February, resulted in 12,000 junior doctors walking out for over six weeks, senior doctors threatening to resign en masse and a burgeoning medical crisis as the public suddenly found themselves unable to access healthcare. The president’s plan backfired.

“Ordinary people, who wouldn’t otherwise be interested in policy matters, simply experienced first-hand consequences of the strike,” says Byunghwan Son, director of Asia-Pacific and north-east Asian studies at George Mason University. “Surgeries got cancelled. Treatments were delayed.”

With one of the lowest doctor-patient ratios among developed countries, a rapidly ageing population requiring greater medical attention and only 3,058 students admitted into the country’s medical schools each year, reforms are sorely needed in South Korea and are generally supported by the public. The medical profession is also popular, with admission applications far outnumbering available seats.

But attempts to reform medical school quotas have caused headaches for a succession of Korean leaders, with doctors vehemently opposed to any increase. They argue that the government needs to improve their working conditions and pay before increasing numbers. Critics say doctors are trying to avoid competition within the profession.

Either way, the Korean Medical Association — the organisation behind the strikes — is a powerful force. “The size of medical schools has been kept small mainly because politically influential doctors have been staunch opponents of any capacity increase,” says Dr. Son. “They wouldn’t hesitate to make a political scene, such as staging protests and strikes, to make their voices heard. And that’s been proven effective.”

Now, in the wake of a resounding defeat for his party, Yoon looks set to become a lame duck president, unable to advance significant reforms in the final three years of his five-year term. That is likely to include the medical school reforms, leaving the sector untouchable. “A likely path going forward would be for the embattled government to give in and the situation returning to the status quo,” says Dr. Son.

Also read: South Korea: Doctors rally against government’s medical school recruitment plan