Only seven out of 11,000 medical residents used a parental leave last year, a lawmaker said, citing government data.

Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the ruling Democratic Party released the related data of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

According to Shin, women accounted for 38.1 percent of the 11,180 trainee physicians in the residency programs in 2019. Over half of the residents were female in obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatrics, family medicine, radiology, radiation oncology, and nuclear medicine.

Out of 4,264 female residents, 312 (7.3 percent) took a childbirth leave last year. Only seven residents, including male and female, took parental leave. Of them, only one took the full year for parental leave. The seven residents used 174 days for parental leave on average.

Under Article 8 of the Medical Residents Act, a pregnant resident can reduce work to 40 hours a week.

However, in reality, it is almost impossible for a teaching hospital to get a replacement resident. Moreover, if one resident takes a childbirth leave in an intense working environment, the remaining trainee physicians should take over the left work. This makes residents difficult to use childbirth or parental leave properly.

“We should not only provide a safe working environment for pregnant residents but improve the system to allow residents to take a childbirth and parental leave smoothly,” Shin said. “The stagnant discussion for residents’ pregnancy and childbirth measures goes against efforts to raise the low birth rate. This is a major cause of gender discrimination in the medical community.”

Shin criticized the health and welfare ministry for not allocating the next year’s budget for research on identifying pregnant residents and preparing maternity protection measures. She suggested that the government could provide incentives for residents who work extra time to make up a childbirth leave of the pregnant colleague.