I haven't been following any news as closely for the last week and a half--as I've said, the more you read books, the more foolish "the news" seems--but I do try to keep an eye out for news out of South Korea. As ever, the stories that make me scratch my head are the ones that keep my attention.
South Korea is hurting for medical personnel. This is something that I, as a resident of Boston, can sympathize with. You may live in an environment where a lot of doctors are trained, but the competition to see said doctors can be brutal, especially if you're in the midst of a demographic shift, as South Korea is. On top of that, South Korea is one of those places where the capital dwarfs the next largest city, so the lion's share of the action still takes place in Seoul. And because they are a highly urbanized population, activity is biased toward the cities (I am hard pressed to think of a case in the world where that isn't true right now).
So, as it stands, there aren't enough doctors, and there especially aren't enough in rural areas, or for the elderly. (You've got to imagine how dire it might be if you're an elderly person in a rural area.) Not surprisingly, the government announced a few months ago that they would now increase the number of students accepted into medical school, both to get more doctors into the field and to relieve the pressure on the existing doctors.
A little digression: this sounded like a great idea to me, in part because last year some of Boston's residents had a strike. They had been laboring under low pay (Boston is very expensive) while being absolutely hustled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I've been in medical settings; they are overworked, and I supported their positions. Thus, I thought South Korea was on the right track.
Oh boy. Clearly, the younger doctors did not agree, but they are not just striking but *resigning* since the announcement. They are, in a word, outraged.
This is where I started scratching my head, until I came upon this:
However, these proposals have been criticized by doctors and professors, who argue that medical schools are currently struggling to provide adequate teaching and training resources to students at their current enrollment levels.
Oh. Right. Yes. And in retrospect, not sure why I expected more from the Yoon administration.
There is no doubt that South Koreans, just like the Americans, just like most other people on the planet, need more, but we need the *right* kind of more. It is not enough to increase the supply of some resource; we have to make sure that we can put those resources to work.
I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a Lyft driver years ago. He was more conservative than I am (this isn't hard), but it was a pleasant discussion. This was around the time politicians were beginning to make proposals for free college education. At least one child was in college, and three would be going later. I don't think college solves everything or even most things, but I think it should be accessible. My driver did not agree, but not because he didn't think everyone deserved an education. What, he asked, would that look like if it happened right then? What would the quality of that education be for everyone if all we did was make college available to everyone but didn't really change anything else?
As he spoke, I remembered the classes my daughter had taken at community college, taught predominantly by people who had to teach at multiple institutions to make enough to live on. Many times those professors or instructors aren't as available for questions as their tenured equivalents might be, and who can blame them when they have to hustle as hard as they do. I could easily see a nightmare scenario, a la Tithonus, where students could take whatever classes they wanted, they just shouldn't expect that the instruction would actually teach.
Just as, perhaps, South Koreans might be able to get more doctors, they just shouldn't expect that they'll actually be well-trained.
Temporary stopgaps can be simple, but permanent solutions don't tend to be. Which is why it's not a bad idea to keep an eye on labor groups and what they have to say about a given issue. They see things the rest of us don't, and when we don't listen, it's almost always to our detriment.
Deb in the City
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