99% of medical students take a leave of absence. Refusing classes... 70% will not pursue mandatory medical specialties.

It has been found that 99% of medical students are submitting leave of absence requests or refusing to attend classes in protest against the government's policy to increase medical school enrollment. The proportion of students aspiring to work in essential medical fields has also significantly decreased. In response, the medical community has urged the government to resolve the current situation through a complete re-evaluation of the policy.

On the 20th, the Student Association of the Korea University College of Medicine and Medical School (Medical School Association) announced the results of a survey on leave of absence submissions, class refusal status, and awareness among students at 40 medical colleges or medical graduate schools nationwide during the third week of May (from the 13th to the 17th). The survey was answered by approximately 80%, or 14,676, of the 18,348 medical and graduate school students.

According to the results, as of the 13th of last month, 98.73% (14,490 people) answered that they are engaging in actions equivalent to taking a leave of absence (submitting a leave of absence form or refusing to attend classes). Additionally, a similar percentage (98.81%) cited their stance on the medical school quota increase policy as "reconsideration from scratch after the complete nullification." Regarding the 1,506 additional admissions proposed by the Korea University Education Council (KUEC), only 1.18% supported it.

It has been revealed that the vast majority of people hold a negative stance towards the government's essential medical services policy package. 99.6% of respondents answered that they oppose this policy, and the reasons (multiple choices) include: △ 'Identifying the cause' of the essential medical services policy package (not considering the complexity and organic nature of the healthcare system) 83.2% (12,217 people), △ 'Expected effects' of the essential medical services policy package (misdirected approach needed to solve problems or exaggerated expected benefits) 76.1% (11,179 people), △ 'Premise' of the essential medical services policy package (issues with social or logical preconditions or presenting inappropriate assumptions) 59.8% (8,787 people).

Additionally, it was found that perceptions regarding the future career paths of medical students and medical school residents have also changed. Before the announcement of the essential medical care policy package and the policy to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 students, about 70% of respondents answered 'yes' when asked if they had an intention to support essential medical care subjects (internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and adolescent medicine, emergency medicine, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery).

Conversely, when asked whether they would support the policy package for essential medical care and the policy to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 students, about 73% responded 'No'.

Accordingly, the percentage of students who have a reluctance towards residency training has increased. When asked whether they believed residency training was essential before the government policy announcement, about 88% responded 'yes,' but after the announcement, the percentage answering 'yes' to whether training is mandatory dropped to approximately 25%, a decrease of about 3.5 times.

The Korean Medical Association stated, "Through this survey, students recognized not only the medical school quota but also the essential medical policy package reflecting the overall healthcare policies of the Yoon Seok-youl government as problematic," and added, "Students expressed concerns that these policies are accelerating the collapse of the Korean healthcare system and impacting their future career paths."

Furthermore, the percentage of students strongly wishing to specialize in critical care medicine dropped from 33.15% to 2.12% after the policy announcement, indicating that domestic critical care medicine could suffer irreparable damage. It emphasizes the need for realistic solutions to the healthcare system crisis and calls for sincere discussions to be initiated from the very beginning.