The number of foreign doctors working in Korea is increasing.

According to a statistical report released by the Korean Ministry of Health on August 10, as of June 2024, the number of foreign doctors practicing medicine in Korea has reached 546, an increase of 20.8% compared to the figure of 452 recorded in 2019.

Statistics show that the number of foreign doctors is increasing steadily from 472 in 2019 to 485 in 2020, 500 in 2021 and 521 in 2022.

Foreign doctors who want to practice medicine in Korea must pass the national certification exam to obtain a license to practice medicine in Korea and must graduate from an accredited medical school in other countries and have a license to practice medicine in the country where they were trained.

South Korea’s health ministry plans to allow foreign doctors to practice medicine in the country when necessary, even before they have obtained a license. Accordingly, the ministry may consider allowing unlicensed foreign doctors to practice in Korea within certain limits if there is a “serious” medical situation.

South Korea is facing a severe shortage of doctors, especially at general hospitals that treat critically ill patients, as thousands of trainee doctors have walked off the job since February 19 in protest against a plan to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 starting in 2025.

Hospitals have sought to recruit more than 7,600 interns for training programmes starting in September but so far few have applied for internships.

Many senior professors also announced a boycott of training new applicants to pressure the Korean government to cancel the increase in medical school enrollment quotas.

The South Korean government has set a July 15 deadline for about 12,000 striking interns to resign or return to work at hospitals. However, most of the young doctors have not returned to work.