Major hospitals see few or no applicants for training programs

Major hospitals have received few or no applications for trainee doctor programs starting in September, medical sources said Wednesday, casting uncertainty over the government’s efforts to normalize the monthslong medical disruptions.

Local hospitals, which recently processed resignations from thousands of trainee doctors protesting the medical school quota hike, were set to close applications for 7,700 new positions in the training programs later in the day.

However, the medical community has largely been unresponsive to the latest recruiting efforts, with some medical professors also vowing to boycott the training of new applicants, calling for the government to fully scrap the reform plan before engaging in any negotiations.

Pundits said even the country’s top five hospitals were facing hurdles in recruiting new trainee doctors.

The five hospitals — Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital, Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital — play a key role in providing medical care for critically ill patients.

“While we cannot say there have been no applications, the number remains extremely low, and it is uncertain if it will even exceed a single digit,” an official from one of the hospitals said.

Hospitals also remain cautious about revealing the number of applicants, as there could be attempts to identify the individuals, an official from another hospital said.

The government had earlier encouraged hospitals to accept mass resignations from trainee doctors filed in late February as an appeasement gesture, allowing departing doctors to seek new jobs while enabling hospitals to recruit fresh trainees.

The government also promised special considerations for departing junior doctors reapplying for the training programs, including an exemption from the rule that prohibits applying to the same department within a single year.

It earlier finalized an admissions quota increase of approximately 1,500 students for medical schools next year to address the shortage of doctors.

Amid the continued protest from the medical community, the government vowed to implement additional reform plans to fundamentally reduce hospitals’ dependence on trainee doctors by expanding the roles of physician assistant nurses, and have top-tier general hospitals focus on treating critically ill patients.

“We intend to speed up efforts to implement reforms that can effectively and fundamentally revamp the system of top-tier general hospitals and reduce their excessive reliance on junior doctors,” an official from the health ministry said.