The government has decided to spend one-point-three trillion won, or 987 million U.S. dollars, over the next five years to enhance the treatment of seriously ill children and lower the costs of hospital admissions for babies under the age two. 

Interior minister Lee Sang-min unveiled the plan on Thursday during a government meeting on responses to trainee doctors’ collective action in protest of the government plan to increase the number of doctors in the country. He said that the government will ensure there will be no problems for children to use hospitals at night and on holidays. 

Regarding the prolonged collective action by trainee doctors, the minister said that the government will mobilize all available resources to strengthen the emergency medical care system with a focus on seriously ill and emergency patients. 

Lee also said that discussions of a possible collective action by medical professors are raising public concern and anxiety, stressing that the government’s move to normalize the medical system is for medical students as well as the professors. 

The minister emphasized that the public is showing support for the government’s medical reform plans despite the inconveniences and anxiety caused by the prolonged collective action. He cited recent survey findings that 89 percent of South Koreans think an increase of the medical school admissions quota is necessary and 58 percent said the quota should grow by two-thousand or more.