Medical License Re-Issuance Plummets: A Stunning 74.4% Drop in Just 3 Years
Provided by Clip Art Korea.
Statistics have emerged that discredit the popular belief that ‘medical licenses are an iron rice bowl.’
On the 26th, People Power Party lawmaker Choi Bo-yoon, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, disclosed data on the ‘annual license re-issuance status’ received from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. According to this data, in 2020, 75 out of 86 applications for license reissue were reissued, reaching a rate of 87.2%, but last year, only 16 out of 163 applications were accepted, falling 77.4 percentage points to 9.8%.
The license reissue rate continued to fall from 87.2% in 2020 to 51% in 2021, 26.6% in 2022, and 9.8% in 2023, and by March of this year, 8 out of 63 cases were reissued, recording 12.7%.
By job title, the reissue approval rate for doctors decreased by 74.4% points from 85.5% in 2020 to 11.1% in 2023, for dentists from 50% in 2020 to 5.9% in 2023, and for oriental medicine doctors from 81.8% in 2020 to 8.5% in 2023. It decreased from 100% in 2020 to 13.3% in 2023.
Rep. Choi said, “It is analyzed that the decline in the license re-issuance rate of medical personnel is due to the introduction of the license re-issuance review system,” and “It appears that the license re-issuance rate is decreasing significantly every year due to the strict application of the system. The government is responsible for managing the licenses of medical practitioners and the quality of medical services.” “We must continuously and systematically pursue policies for improvement,” he said.
The license re-issuance review system was introduced in 2020 as a system that requires the majority approval of the members of the Health and Medical Personnel Administrative Disposition Deliberation Committee to re-issue licenses, which were previously carried out internally within the Ministry of Health and Welfare.