The news articles I have come across mention the reason, but I don’t understand why they are protesting the influx of more manpower. Sounds like they should be glad for more help? Or is there an angle I am not seeing.
The healthcare profession in my country is dying for more help in every sector at any given time. And we have been churning out thousands of graduates every year.
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There /IS/ a shortage of doctors, but the shortage doctors is in several fields that nobody wants to work in because they don’t pay well. The fear is that adding more people but no incentives to go in to those low paying fields won’t result in fixing those shortages, it’ll result in an excess of medical workers in already crowded fields.
For example, there’s a shortage of emergency care doctors. Workers in that field report that they work multiple 24hr+ shifts and upwards of 80 hours a week. Nobody is going to sign up for that and you can’t force people to do it. If you’re looking to get in to medicine as a life long career that makes money, you’re probably just gonna try your luck at some area of cosmetic surgery that’s guaranteed to make you money.
It’s not just emergency care, it’s a handful of other fields and locations. Adding more doctors is certainly a good idea, but it’s not addressing a core issue that’s more hidden from the general public’s periphery.
Another argument is that adding 2000 students in a year is a HUGE effort for the schools. They’ll need to hire new professors, open up new classes, change their curriculum, train that staff, figure out how they’ll assess all those new people, figure out all the back-end admin stuff. It’s an ENORMOUS project in a short amount of time. The end result could be a generation of undertrained doctors.
I think that a safe thing to say is , “It’s a good idea, but it’s not a good plan yet.”
Also, keep in mind that news from Korea is hard to get at first. Especially for important topics like this, so details, nuances, and information emerging that could render all of this just like… worthless, is totally possible.
They’ve worked really hard to get where they are now, and increasing intake undercuts that. Being a doctor comes with a lot of prestige and lowering requirements hurts the general prestige of the position.
the korean government is trying to :
1. increase the number of doctors
2. balance the medical infrastructure nationwide
3. legal support for doctors regarding medical malpractice
4. change how the national healthcare pays for the treatment
4th part directly affects how doctors earn money, they are gonna paid less when it happens.
simply put, you have been enjoying a honey pot, the government says a smaller honey pot from now, you are not happy anymore.
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