[Presidential office reaffirms commitment to planned medical school quota hikes, urges medical community to draft unified alternatives for consideration]
subhead: Possibility for agreement on the alternative number clouds over growing internal rifts within medical community.
South Korea's presidential office on Monday said it has no plans to postpone the medical school admission quota hikes set for 2025.
A spokesperson from the presidential office reiterated the government's commitment to the planned increase in medial school enrollment quota before reporters at the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, in central Seoul, on Monday.
"Our decision to raise the enrollment quota by 2,000 annually over the next five years is based on solid scientific evidence and results of several discussions held with the medical community," the spokesperson explained at the briefing.
However, he added that the government is open to revising its plan if the medical community comes up with the unified plan for
alternatives to the government's plan after the general election on April 10.
The quota allotment process per medical school has already began across the country. The government has been urging the medical community to present a unified number and period if it wants the government to revise the plan after the parliamentary election.
However, the internal rift within medical community is growing, clouding the prospect of the unified proposal. On the same day of the briefing, the medical community reportedly called off the joint press conference slated for April 11-12.
Tensions escalated between Korea Medical Association and Korean Intern Resident Association following an exclusive meeting on Sunday between Presdient Yoon Suk Yeol and Park Dan, the head of KIRA.
After the meeting on Sunday, the KMA immediately launched criticisms against Park Dan, saying that his decision to meet President Yoon came without heeding the opinions of other members of the medical community.
In response, on Monday, Park indicated on his facebook account that he has "never agreed to holding the joint press conference with the KMA after the general election," hinting at the cancellation of the joint press conference.
Additionally, internal power struggles are also growing within the KMA over who should helm the post of the interim committe chief.
Earlier, Yim Hyun-take, a newly appointed leader of the KMA, has indicated his will to lead the interim committe until his official inaguration in May.
However, Kim Taek-woo, the current chief of the interim committe, immediately expressed opposition, saying that Yim who is already a member of the committee should not double as its chair.
As disagreements grow over who should lead the interim committe, medical community is finding it challenging to reach an agreement by the size of the enrollment quota hikes.
Amid a prolonged standoff betweent the government and medical community, the medical vacuum is growing across the country as the medical strike enters eighth week as of this week.
To tackle medical staff shortage, the government has been calling for the country's nurses to fill the void and deploying public health doctors and military doctors to the national public hospitals.
The government has also rolled out support measures to shield public health and military doctors from legal risks in the event of possible medical accident.
South Korea's health ministry is closely moniotring the situations at hosptials across the country. It plans to announce the results of its latest monitoring and its additional support measures on Tuesday.