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Doctors with the Gangwon chapter of the Korean Medical Association hold a rally outside the Gangwon Provincial Office on Feb. 15, 2024, to protest the raising of the medical school enrollment cap. (Park Soo-hyuk/The Hankyoreh)

“Is this really the country I think it is? Is this a socialist country? Is this the ‘republic of prosecutors’? Hearing that the enrollment cap at medical schools would be increased by 2,000 people felt like a gut punch. Feb. 6 was a death sentence for Korean health care.”

Kim Taek-woo, the president of the Gangwon Province chapter of the Korean Medical Association, spoke passionately at a rally held to protest the government’s plan to increase medical school placements, one of several policy changes aimed at ensuring access to essential medical services. The rally was held in front of Gangwon Provincial Office on Thursday afternoon.

“I presume that the government will try to blackmail us in the days to come. We might be jailed, and our licenses might be revoked. But if the time comes when Korea’s 140,000 doctors have their licenses simultaneously revoked, I believe the government will end its unfair pressure and abolish its unjust policies. I believe that we can prevail,” Kim said.

The 120 or so protesters at the rally were wearing yellow vests that said, “Just say no to more doctors.” The placards they were carrying bore the following messages: “Railroading an increase in medical school enrollment will erode high-quality medical services,” “Koreans are the victims of a groundless increase in the number of doctors,” “The rushed measures for essential medical services spell the end of health care,” “A prison for conscientious emergency care is on the horizon.”

Doctors with the Gangwon chapter of the Korean Medical Association hold a rally outside the Gangwon Provincial Office on Feb. 15, 2024, to protest the raising of the medical school enrollment cap. (Park Soo-hyuk/The Hankyoreh)

Yeom Dong-ho, the president of the council of representatives for the Gangwon provincial association, also took the stage at the rally.

“When I see the Yoon administration racing down a path that’s sure to wreck Korea’s medical system, one of the best in the world, while ignoring the counsel of the medical professionals who are best informed about the situation on the ground, I feel the horror of watching the Titanic going down. Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong and Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo need to take responsibility for this debacle by stepping down from their posts,” Yeom said.

“Even without increasing the enrollment cap, the time is coming when we will have a glut of doctors. So I have no idea what they hope to accomplish by increasing the enrollment cap by 2,000 people a year,” said Park Je-woo, the president of the medical association’s branch in Chuncheon.

“If students crowd into medical schools that haven’t found enough professors to provide decent instruction, who is going to take responsibility for the poor-quality doctors who will graduate? For a political leader who ought to be thinking about the future of his country, disregarding all this amounts to dereliction of duty.”

“The lack of doctors going into pediatric and adolescent medicine and the lack of doctors working in the countryside isn’t a matter of the number of doctors — it’s matter of medical policy and institutions and the distribution of doctors,” said Lee Jong-bok, the president of the medical association’s Wonju chapter.

Similar rallies were held Thursday not only in Gangwon Province but also in Daejeon, Ulsan, North Chungcheong Province and North Jeolla Province.

Ten doctors with the Daejeon chapter of the medical association held a protest in front of the Daejeon office of the ruling People Power Party (PPP). “We don’t have too few doctors in this country. The problem is that doctors are shunning obstetrics, gynecology and surgery departments because of the absurdly low pay and fears about criminal prosecution,” the doctors said.

The North Jeolla Province chapter office of the association also condemned the government’s plan to increase enrollment at medical schools in a rally of over a hundred people at Pungnammun Square in Jeonju on Thursday afternoon.

At the same time, the Ulsan chapter was holding a rally of more than a hundred doctors in front of the PPP’s Ulsan office. “Instead of waiting for the trickle-down effect of 2,000 more doctors entering the workforce in 10 or 15 years, the government needs to be a good-faith partner in talks about how to save the collapsing essential care sector,” the Ulsan doctors said. 

“The collapse of essential care will only accelerate during the ten years it takes for new medical students to become doctors,” the North Chungcheong Province chapter said at a rally held in front of the ruling party’s office in the province.

By Park Soo-hyuk, Gangwon correspondent

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