61550    Amidst the advancement of medical technology and the aging society, doctors with a well-rounded personality and a wide-range of skills have increasingly been in demand.

61551    To become a medical practitioner, it is a nonbinding target to go through two or more years of clinical training after having completed medical education and passed the national examination for the physicians' license.

61552    In fact, over 80 percent of medical licensees, with the exception of those who went on to attend graduate schools, are taking internship at university hospitals or hospitals designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

61553    However, as internship is mandatory, the substance of training at the various hospitals is not consistent from one hospital to another.

61554    Some interns receive training in just one department and cannot gain the wide range of skills that are helpful in real practice.

61555    In some extreme cases, as interns' monthly pay is no more than tens of thousands of yen, thus forcing them to work in part-time jobs elsewhere to earn money instead of putting in adequate hours for training.

61556    Under these circumstances, the Clinical Training Subcommittees in the Council for those Engaged in Medical Services have prepared a report saying, "it is desirable to make clinical training mandatory and to improve the substance of training."

61557    After consulting widely with related parties, the subcommittee will further discuss the substance of training if clinical training of approximately two years becomes mandatory, the training facilities, the training structure, certification after completion of training, and improvement of the pay received by interns, and write up its conclusive findings within this year.

61558    Upon receipt of the foregoing report, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will embark on the first massive overhaul since the abolition of the hands-on training system in 1968.

61559    In Europe and the US, post-graduate training systems have been established as well.

61560    Making the clinical training compulsory seems to flow with the current of the times and there are many who will agree with this change.

61561    But it is not something that can be done easily.

61562    It will be essential for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which will take a leadership role in the training overhaul, and the Ministry of Education, which has jurisdiction over the university hospitals that take in many interns, to pull down the government's "vertical administrative" system of agencies only looking after its scope of responsibilities and to work cooperatively.

61563    While the health ministry asked for the implementation of clinical training based on the training program starting this year, less than 50 percent of university hospitals have actually developed the program.

61564    The system to train interns in both internal medicine and surgery, or to provide comprehensive training including training in pediatrics and the emergency department in addition to the foregoing two areas, has been implemented by only a limited number of hospitals.