Doctors and nurses’ aides will launch collective action while considering a strike in opposition to the parliamentary passage of a bill stipulating the roles and duties of nurses in a bid to improve working conditions.

An alliance of 13 organizations, including the Korean Medical Association, said on Tuesday that collective action such as taking leave or shortening medical service hours will be staged to hold rallies nationwide on Wednesday, and again on May 11.

The group will launch a general strike on May 17 should either their demands for reconsideration of the bill be rejected or President Yoon Suk Yeol does not exercise his right to veto.

The organizations said that over 80 percent of surveyed doctors and nurses' aides support collective action, adding that they will adjust the scope and method of their protests to mitigate public inconvenience from a vacuum in the medical sector.

Doctors suspect that the wording "regional community nursing" in the bill may open the path for nurses to start their own clinics. Nurses' aides take issue with limiting their eligibility to high school graduates, unchanged from the current law. 

The groups also characterized as "excessive" and "unconstitutional" another set of disputed revisions aimed at revoking licenses of medical personnel sentenced to prison. 

Last week, the main opposition Democratic Party led a push to pass the controversial bills amid strong protest from the ruling People Power Party.