Anchor: A growing number of medical school professors are mulling over handing in their resignations. Many of the professors are opposing the government's medical reform measures and its response to trainee doctors who walked off their jobs in protest of plans to increase the supply of doctors. The emergency committee of medical schools of Seoul National University, Yonsei University, the Catholic University of Korea, and 16 others have scheduled an online meeting Friday evening to decide whether to proceed with their plan to quit on Monday.
Kim Bum-soo has the latest.

Report: A group of 19 medical schools, including those of Seoul National University, Yonsei University and the Catholic University of Korea have scheduled an online meeting Friday night to decide whether their professors will tender their collective resignations on Monday next week. 

Of the 19 schools, professors of Wonkwang University School of Medicine and Gyeongsang National University College of Medicine have already decided to resign en masse, while professors at eight teaching hospitals affiliated with the Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine are said to have made up their mind to tender individual resignations.

The professors at the 19 medical schools oppose the government's plans to suspend the medical licenses of resident doctors who walked off their jobs. 

Members of the Medical Professors Association of Korea held an online meeting the previous night to discuss the current feud over the government's plan to increase the supply of doctors in the nation.  

The association's head Kim Chang-soo told KBS that those at the meeting surveyed how many professors had already resigned individually and how many will follow suit, while noting that the issue of collective resignation was never a topic during the talks.

While falling short of providing the exact number, the head of the medical professors association said there are many members who intend to resign, and the only remaining question for them is what they should do as faculty members in the prolonged absence of trainee doctors.  

Attended by professors from 33 medical schools nationwide, the meeting took place as some 90 percent of the nation's some 13-thousand trainee doctors left their jobs last month. 

Along with the resident doctors who collectively quit, more than six-thousand, or over 30 percent, of the nation's medical school students have also filed for a leave of absence as the government is expanding medical school admissions quota. 

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong on Friday made a last-minute appeal for medical professors, trying to dissuade them from resigning en masse, which would further intensify the current disruption in medical services caused by trainee doctors’ departure from major hospitals.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.