President Yoon Suk Yeol has urged doctors and medical professors to actively engage in dialogue with the government regarding medical reform and to persuade absent trainee doctors to swiftly return to work. 

The president made the call on Tuesday while chairing a Cabinet meeting, saying that some medical professors had started tendering their resignations on Monday. 

The nationally televised remarks came ahead of a planned meeting on Tuesday afternoon between Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and key officials from the medical community.

President Yoon said that the allocation of an additional two-thousand medical school admissions seats was completed last Wednesday, stressing that the allocation achieved the minimum necessary conditions for medical reform.

The president emphasized that the quota hike is just the starting point for medical reform, saying that the government should implement other measures quickly as it will take ten more years for next year’s medical school freshmen to become doctors.
 
Regarding concerns about possible erosion in the quality of medical education following the quota hike, Yoon said that the government will take measures to improve the quality of medical education next month.

He also said that a presidential special committee to be launched next month will involve experts from various areas including the medical community to discuss specific measures related to reform.