The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has been pushing for 24 months mandatory service for Public Health Doctors (PHDs) and Military Doctors for years, but in the last few months, they’ve been stressing it intensely. Why is this happening?
If these guys all just go serve as enlisted soldiers, the PHDs will disappear, collapsing local medical services. We won't have the doctors needed for physical examinations (병판의), and military doctors will vanish, leaving no one to treat the troops.
There are 3,058 medical school freshmen for the '24 entering class and 5,058 for the '25 class. That’s 8,116 combined. As of August this year, 2,838 enlisted. Based on the number of non-returning students three weeks ago (5,060 including those who enlisted), considering the 1% non-return rate at Ewha Womans University, almost all of the non-returning students are male, and the fact they haven't come back means they basically went to the military.
Sure, some upper-year medical students might be mixed in, but considering the heavy academic burden, the proportion of pre-med students is definitely higher. Especially if we calculate the gender ratio of 1st and 2nd year pre-med students as 60% male, that's 4,870 guys, but the non-return rate is 5,060. Not *all* pre-med students went to the military, but those who did (including those who went to study while serving—군수) no longer have the service obligation (to be a doctor). This is seriously screwed up.
At this point, you might ask, why not just cut the service time to two years? But if you cut a 3-year term down to 2 years, 30% of the manpower just vanishes. Naturally, this missing manpower has to be brought in from somewhere.
But can they even bring them in? Let’s say they somehow fix this and make it mandatory for female medical students to serve as military doctors/PHDs/examiners. What’s the problem now?
Guys can finish quickly in 18 months, so why can’t women go for the long term? The backlash will hit immediately. Ah, you could say we should block male medical students from enlisting as regular soldiers. But that's impossible because taking away the right to choose military service violates the Constitution. Then, what if we change the rules so women can serve as enlisted soldiers?
Why are women in every other profession fine, but only female doctors are forced into mandatory military service? That's obviously going to cause controversy. People will suggest: 1. Just impose mandatory service on all women. 2. Let women take only the cushy assignments (꿀보직). 3. If men are the problem, just form divisions only with women.
Then national security is toast. We hear plenty of talk about public safety problems now that the proportion of female police officers has increased.
1. Impose mandatory service? I reckon they'll do this eventually if they run out of bodies, but let's skip that for now.
2. Let women take only the cushy assignments? In reality, female soldiers existed in South Korea even before the 1970s. They mostly did clerical work in high-level units like headquarters, but their numbers were, of course, tiny. Currently, the ROK military is cutting even essential clerical staff due to force reduction, so there are even fewer cushy jobs. If they conscript women, they can't accommodate everyone. Besides, personnel and supply clerks are roles they give to the sharpest guys among the regular troops, not just anyone...
3. Form divisions consisting only of female soldiers. How do you think an area would feel if their police station was staffed only by female cops? Some people argue we should just separate men and women. For instance, try staffing the 22nd Division purely with female soldiers—what the heck would happen? You might say they could staff local reserve divisions with women. But if you look at the North Korean submarine infiltration incidents, they went as far south as Yeosu. There are also inland cases, like the armed spy infiltration in Buyeo. Staffing a division only with men is possible, but there is absolutely no worldwide precedent for an all-female combat division, and for the sake of ROK security, it is absolutely impossible.
As you can see from what I've written, the topic has drifted far beyond the initial issue of securing PHDs. The MOHW's goal is to secure PHDs, but there are far too many hurdles to jump. That's why the MND can't easily make a decision, and high-level officials need to have deep discussions to decide this without future repercussions.
But nobody is having that deep discussion. If military doctors, PHDs, and examiners disappear, we won't be able to hire a doctor for 30 million KRW a month, let alone the 3 million we used to pay. Without mandatory service, what lunatic would go be a GOP military doctor in a GOP unit north of the Civilian Control Line, no matter how much you pay him? How much do you have to pay a guy to work as a military doctor at a division aid station in a standing division in Inje County? We need to discuss this urgently and find a solution.
"Med students are using the military as a college break, ditching the toxic military doctor track for the easy enlisted cash! Now the MOHW is totally boned and policy suggestions are getting insane (all-female combat divisions?!). Everyone's roasting the government, saying the military will become a new cancer factory for societal problems."
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