Doctors stage a protest against the government's medical reform plan during a rally in Seoul, Dec. 8. Yonhap
The medical community was seen largely unresponsive to general hospitals' efforts to recruit new trainee doctors amid the lingering deadlock with the government over a controversial medical reform plan, medical sources said Tuesday.
During the application period that ended Monday, the total number of candidates for residents' training programs beginning in March came to just 314, filling only 8.7 percent of the 3,594 available positions, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Korea's top five general hospitals, which play a key role in treating patients in critical conditions, received only 68 applicants for 784 positions.
Thousands of trainee doctors have been absent from their workplaces through mass resignations since February, with the medical community urging the government to review the planned hike in the medical school quota from scratch.
The government earlier decided to raise the number of medical school seats by 1,500 for 2025 as part of a plan to increase the number by around 2,000 for the next five years to address a shortage of doctors.
Meanwhile, only 102 interns are currently continuing their training, filling only a fraction of the 3,068 positions available at 211 hospitals across the nation, which, in turn, raises concerns about the recruitment of candidates for future residency programs.
The medical community's protest against the reform plan further escalated when a decree issued by Korea's short-lived martial law command last week warned of punishment for doctors defying the government's return-to-work order. (Yonhap)
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