Finding a solution to medical policy conflicts

The names of some 70 medical students from Seoul National University (SNU) medical school were reportedly disclosed against their will in the form of a so-called "blacklist." In their third or fourth year, the students have returned to classes commencing on January 20 according to the academic year schedule, making them a controversial target by the medical community. Most medical students nationwide left the school in protest against the government's plan to increase medical student admissions in 2024, and the blacklist is seen as an act of criticism against those.

Professor Kang Hee-kyung of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at SNU Hospital said some of those students attending classes felt threatened and asked professors for help. Previously, a similar blacklist of medical returnees of Inje University Medical School was also circulated, forcing many of them to give up going back to school. Korea's Ministry of Education eventually announced on January 22 that it had requested a police investigation into the act of disseminating personal information of students who had returned or expressed their intention to return to school.

Given the nature of the medical profession, where minor mistakes can lead to loss of life, the medical community maintains relatively strict discipline and hierarchy. Their highly insular structure, where relationships persist for over ten years from pre-med to residency, also affects their community culture. As a result, such blacklists may have felt a serious personal attack, to the extent that some affected students sought help from professors.

The conflict between the medical community and the government over the expansion of medical school admissions has persisted for nearly a year, with no resolution in sight. This is why the recent blacklist controversy is all the more regrettable. Since the government announced the quota increase plan in February last year, some 18,000 medical students nationwide have left school for a reason. They were criticizing that the increased quota of 2,000 students was decided haphazardly without leaving any official meeting records or minutes and wanted to put the brakes on the government's rather unrealistic plan that exceeded the capacity of medical education and training infrastructure.

In 2024, the Ministry just waited for the students to return while confirming the position of refusing any leaves of absence; however, as the situation escalated, they changed their position later to advance through an accelerated curriculum if they came back by November. Then again, the government developed makeshift measures to shorten the rigorous medical training course from six to five years, further fueling the anger among the medical trainee community.

The government even announced an emergency plan to normalize the academic schedule for medical schools under the condition that only those who promise to return to school this year can be allowed leave of absence. Many experts from universities pointed out that the government was not able to provide the fundamental solution for the situation by effectively forcing medical students into unofficial leaves of absence and shifting the responsibility of approval onto universities.

The only way to resolve this conflict and return to school is to negotiate with a rather tone-deaf government, implementing inconsistent policies with sound reasoning and legitimate grounds. Engaging in self-destructive behavior, such as the blacklist controversy and internal divisions among medical students, only serves to erode public trust. The medical trainee community should never forget that their last resort to leave the school was not to attack each other but to address the issues surrounding the student quota increase.