While the quota for domestic medical schools has remained in place for the 17th year, it is predicted that by 2035, 10 years from now, there will be a shortage of more than 27,000 doctors. In the meantime, the government has tried to increase the number of medical schools or establish new medical schools several times, but they failed due to strong opposition from the medical community. According to a report titled 'A Study on the Supply and Demand of Doctors by Professional Doctors' published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, assuming that the workload per doctor is maintained at the 2019 level, a shortage of 14,334 doctors in 2030 and 27,232 in 2035 is expected. 

The 2035 doctor shortage is across most practice areas. 10,042 internal medicine doctors, including internal medicine, pediatrics, and neurology; predicted to be insufficient. An excess supply of 150 was expected only in the Department of Preventive Medicine.

“For supply and demand to be balanced, the workload per physician needs to increase by about 14.7%,” the report explained. Currently, the number of domestic medical school quotas has been frozen at 3,058 since 2006.

A bigger problem is that the concentration of manpower is concentrated in departments such as plastic surgery, ophthalmology, dermatology, and psychiatry, where medical fees are high, so-called money.

김유민 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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