Over 150 military doctors and public health doctors are being mobilized to cope with the vacuum left by trainee doctors who walked off the job in protest of the government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota.

According to the government, the health and welfare ministry will dispatch 20 military doctors and 138 public health doctors stationed at public health centers nationwide to work at 20 hospitals for four weeks, starting from Monday.

The doctors are expected to assist the hospitals, which are struggling to maintain services, leading to delays in surgeries and treatment of critically ill patients. 

The health ministry plans to complete by this week the first round of deliveries of advance notices of license suspensions for trainee doctors who have violated the state return-to-work order in protest of a hike in the medical school admissions quota. 

Doctors who receive the notice are required to submit their position by March 25.