Doctors’ associations have warned of an intensive fight if the government increases the annual quota of medical school enrollment without consulting them.
 
The Korea Medical Association(KMA), the largest medical doctors’ group in the nation, issued the warning in a statement after holding an emergency meeting with other associations in Seoul on Tuesday evening.

The statement urged the government to keep the promise made in 2020 to consult the group on the issue and not to enforce related policy unilaterally, stressing that the voices of the medical community should be heeded to produce effective and fundamental solutions to the problems facing the country’s essential and regional medical services.

Doctors’ groups are insisting that discussions on the matter should be conducted through an existing consultative body on medical issues.

The government, however, has taken a negative stance to such consultations, with health and welfare minister Cho Kyoo-hong saying on Tuesday that the ministry and the KMA held 14 rounds of talks through the consultative body but no progress was made on the quota issue.

The minister stressed that the government believes it cannot postpone the quota increase any longer in light of a serious shortage of pediatric and emergency room doctors.