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Government says it has no plans to review one-year grace period on increase of medical school admissions

입력 2024.04.09 17:41

Min Seo-young

A student at Kyungpook National University College of Medicine sits in a gown in a hallway on campus on Monday. Kyungpook National University's medical school resumed classes through virtual lectures on Monday. Yonhap News Agency

While the government has emphasized the need to increase the number of medical school admissions by 2,000, it has repeatedly said that it is open to dialog with the medical community if doctors propose an alternative. The government's approach is to keep the door open for negotiation, which led to a controversy when Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo said, "I will review it internally" regarding the "one-year grace period for the increase of medical school admissions," but later explained, "I do not plan to review it." Since last weekend, a few days before the general election, both the government and the medical community have been showing a flexible attitude, drawing attention to whether it will lead to dialogue between the two sides after the general election.

In response to a question about whether the government could accept the medical community's proposal for having a one-year grace period on the increase, Park said at a briefing at the Central Disaster Safety Task Force for the collective action of doctors on April 8, "We will review that internally. However, it is difficult to conclusively say whether we can accept it or not at the moment." He also added, "Reversing (the allocation of seats by medical school) would certainly cause another disruption and is a very difficult situation in reality," but said, "Obviously, it is not physically impossible to change it anyway until the recruitment guidelines for new students are set."

It was interpreted that the government's position took a step back. However, Park explained in an emergency briefing a few hours later at 4:30 p.m., "There has been no internal review of the one-year grace period and there are no plans to review it in the future." The presidential office also said separately on the same day that "the government has not reviewed the one-year grace period on the increase of medical school admissions and has no plans to do so in the future."