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 Authorities flagged the need to train doctors for potential
outbreaks of infectious disease worse than COVID-19, which is caused
by the coronavirus, pointing to the risk of more frequent epidemics
and limited numbers of beds for the sick.
To fill the gap, officials said they plan to step up admissions to
medical schools using a combination of new quotas, incentives for
students in less lucrative specialities and those who complete a
decade of public health work in rural areas.
"We will increase the quota for medical students to add more
personnel in specialized fields," Kim Tae-nyeon, a lawmaker of the
ruling Democratic Party of Korea, said at a policy meeting on
Thursday.
The plan is to boost medical school admissions by about 400 a year
for the next decade, before returning to a quota of 3,058, which has
stayed fixed since 2006.
The government said it would waive tuition and offer full
scholarships to about 300 students in areas such as epidemiology,
gynaecology or surgery, widely seen as unpopular in contrast with
more lucrative plastic surgery and dermatology.
Authorities said South Korea's 2018 ratio of 2.4 doctors for every
1,000 people fell short of an average of 3.5 for nations of the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
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The Korean Medical Association (KMA) called the government's plan unnecessary,
however, saying it was a distraction from real problems in the public health
system.
A survey of 27,000 of its members showed 95% opposed the plan, it said, since
South Korea has no shortage of doctors. It also aired concern that the rural
service requirement would violate students' rights.
The National University Hospital Association welcomed the idea of more doctors,
but expressed concern about the skewed distribution of doctors and medical
facilities, with most hospitals centred on Seoul, the capital.
This week, health authorities warned that virus infections among arrivals from
abroad could push new cases on Friday beyond 100 for the first daily tally in
three digits since April.
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
in an external browser.)
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Josh Smith and Clarence Fernandez)
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