The government will dispatch additional military and public health doctors to hospitals across the nation as medical professors started to reduce their weekly working hours amid the prolonged collective action by trainee doctors. 

In a government meeting on Monday, health minister Cho Kyoo-hong said the government will utilize available personnel as much as possible within the emergency medical system, adding it will seek to dispatch more public health and military doctors. 

So far, a cumulative total of 413 public health and military doctors have been dispatched to help fill the current medical vacuum.

The minister also said that the government will support the hiring of senior doctors and facilitate the continued employment of doctors scheduled to retire. 

Cho added that the government will also support hospitals securing additional physician assistants. 

The government urged medical professors to withdraw their resignations and called for trainee doctors who left their worksites to return to work, reaffirming that it remains open to dialogue with the medical community.