The government has decided to increase the number of medical school professors at major national universities by one thousand by 2027.

The government announced the decision on Thursday in a meeting on responses to doctors’ collective action, saying that the increase is aimed at enhancing essential and regional medical services and improving the quality of medical education.

Interior minister Lee Sang-min said that the government's medical reform plan, including increasing the medical school admissions quota, is the last chance to save the people and regions, adding the government will ensure that the public can receive proper treatment at the right time anywhere.

The minister also said the government will advance the opening of new metropolitan emergency medical situation rooms, which were initially supposed to launch sequentially, with all opening by May. 

The four new situation rooms, which will open on March 4 in the capital region, Chungcheong, Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces, will be responsible for the comprehensive management of transfers and transport of critically-ill patients.