The Korean Medical Association (KMA) Assembly will hold an emergency general meeting on January 28 to discuss response measures to the government's decision to increase medical school admissions, the organization announced Thursday.
The meeting comes nearly two weeks after the government finalized plans to add 3,342 medical school seats over five years starting next year through 2031. Critics within the medical community say the belated gathering represents damage control following mounting calls for KMA President Kim Taek-woo to resign over what they characterize as inadequate leadership.
The agenda includes briefings on the admissions expansion, future countermeasures, and the establishment of an emergency response committee, according to medical industry sources.
The KMA Assembly previously attempted to form an emergency committee in October last year to address issues including mandatory generic prescribing legislation and allowing traditional Korean medicine practitioners to use X-ray equipment. That proposal was rejected when 121 of 173 voting delegates opposed it. The leadership subsequently established a pan-medical community special committee, with President Kim serving as chairman.
Kim walked out of the seventh Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee meeting on January 10 without participating in the final vote on medical school admissions. At a press conference following the government's official announcement, he warned that "the government bears responsibility for all confusion that will occur in medical settings" but stopped short of calling for direct action.
The Korean Hospital Doctors Association, a KMA-affiliated organization representing employed physicians, issued a statement demanding the executive board's resignation. "Despite foreseeable outcomes, the KMA leadership maintained a complacent response," the statement read. "Some argue that the leadership's departure would cause greater chaos, but rank-and-file members believe the medical community would be better off without a KMA of this caliber."
Kim Eun-sik, vice president of the Korean Intern Resident Association, reportedly wrote in an internal message that "President Kim Taek-woo and the KMA leadership have no plan and are merely scrambling to avoid responsibility" and demanded that "the shameless president and executive board, who cling to their positions despite their incompetence, must reflect and resign."
President Kim has maintained he will not step down. In a January 20 letter to members, he cited ongoing threats including specimen consignment regulations, generic prescribing mandates, and X-ray privileges for traditional medicine practitioners as reasons to remain in office.
His assertion in the letter that leadership "made every possible effort" by participating throughout the deliberation process, reducing the scale of admissions increases, and securing caps for individual universities has drawn criticism from members.
The National Trainee Doctors' Union, established in September last year to improve working conditions for medical residents, began surveying its members on January 18 about potential responses to the admissions expansion. The union maintains a significant presence among young doctors with 3,399 members across 76 branches and 107 hospitals nationwide.
"Medical students and young doctors blocked the admissions increase through mass resignations and leaves of absence, yet instead of taking responsibility for failing to stop it, leadership claims to have made every effort—it's shameless," a medical industry insider said. "Convening the assembly now is nothing but belated damage control."