Special incentives fail to bring back resigned junior doctors, with only 2.2% reapplying for medical residency

All special favors in medical residency training and military enlistment have failed to make resigned junior doctors return to hospitals.

Only 199 resigned trainee doctors announced their intention to return to practice in the first half of this year. This number represents a mere 2.2 percent of the total number of resigned junior doctors. Only one person applied for obstetrics and gynecology. Their concentration in the Seoul metropolitan region also remained unchanged.

According to data submitted to Rep. Kim Yoon of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 199 people applied for medical residency in the first half of this year, recording a 2.2 percent application rate.

This was the result of recruiting 9,220 resigned interns and residents at 221 training hospitals nationwide from Jan. 15 to 19 during the first half of the year.

The government extended the recruitment period to Jan. 19 from the original deadline of Jan. 17 as few applied despite special favors in training and military enlistment.

The number of applicants increased as their grades went up. The first-year medical resident had the fewest applicants (17) compared to 52 in the third year, 54 in the second year, and 76 in the fourth year. Obstetrics and gynecology had only one fourth-year resident, while radiation oncology and rehabilitation medicine had three and four, respectively.

Internal medicine and orthopedics had the most applicants, with 24 and 22. Other departments barely avoided single-digit applicants, as shown by family medicine (11), neurosurgery (14), emergency medicine (13), otolaryngology (10), and laboratory medicine (10).

Medical students who applied for first-year medical residence in the first half-year remained at 10 percent of the recruitment target. Against 3,405 new openings, only 10.3 percent, or 351 people – 314 in the first round and 37 in the second round of recruitment -- applied.

Applicants among resigned trainee doctors were also heavily concentrated in the Seoul metro region.

According to data Rep. Seo Myong-ok of the ruling People Power Party received from the Health and Welfare Ministry, out of 199 applicants, 135 applied for hospitals in the greater Seoul area, accounting for 67.8 percent. Only 64 applicants applied for hospitals outside the Seoul metro region.

The same was true in recruiting first-year medical residents. Of the 351 applicants, 216, or 61.5 percent, applied for training hospitals in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province. Only 135 applicants applied for hospitals in the rest of the country.