The government is seeking to ease overcrowding in the emergency rooms of major hospitals by sending non-emergency patients to nearby medical facilities. 

Deputy health minister Jun Byung-wang announced the plan on Friday after a government meeting on responses to the prolonged collective action by trainee doctors.

Under the triage program, non-emergency patients visiting the 43 Regional Emergency Medical Centers will be transferred to nearby medical facilities.

The government says that 27 percent of the patients visiting the 43 state-designated ER centers are classified as non-emergency patients, and the plan is expected to allow the emergency rooms of top-tier hospitals to focus on the treatment of emergency patients.  

The government plans to spend six-point-seven billion won, or about five million U.S. dollars from state reserve funds on the program.