Main opposition floats 10-year mandatory service for junior doctors

South Korea’s main opposition party has proposed a bill that would mandate the establishment of state-run public medical schools, where students would be required to provide 10 years of compulsory medical service upon graduation, lawmakers said Wednesday.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's move comes amid the ongoing mass walkout by some 12,000 trainee doctors since late February, in protest of the government's plan to increase the country’s medical school enrollment quota.

The bill, drafted and floated by Democratic Party Rep. Park Hee-seong and 71 other opposition lawmakers on Tuesday, focuses on launching new state-run public medical schools. Its graduates would need to complete a decade of mandatory service at medical institutions in medically underserved areas as a key requirement.

All students enrolling in the universities would be provided with state-funded scholarships, which would cover tuition and other costs including textbooks and dormitory fees. Over 60 percent of the medical students at these schools would be high school graduates and residents of nearby areas.

The graduates would need to refund their scholarships if they fail to pass the state exam for doctors within 3 years of their graduation or fail to complete the 10-year mandatory service.

“A serious gap in the quality of medical services exists between big cities (and rural areas),” Park said in a press conference held at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Tuesday.

“We need to fix the imbalance in such medical services and change the reality where those living in rural areas are discriminated against,” he added.

The bill was met with immediate protest from some doctors, with Barun Medicine Institute, a doctors’ civic group here, claiming that its rules are too strict.

“The biggest problem with such programs is that it could result in a disruption of the country’s medical system through its difference from other medical school courses in the country,” the civic group said in a statement.

The Democratic Party had proposed a similar bill during the previous 21st National Assembly session, which was scrapped after failing to be put to a plenary vote.

The ruling People Power Party and the Yoon Suk Yeol administration had opposed the now-scrapped bill at the time, with Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong arguing it could cause “unfairness” in the student selection process and violate graduating students' right to choose their jobs.