Anchor: More cracks are showing in the emergency medical system, amid a six-month stalemate between the government and doctors over expanding medical schools’ admissions quota. Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, which is the regional emergency medical center for the southwestern region of Seoul, has unveiled plans to limit its nighttime operating hours for emergency rooms every Wednesday. Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: Every Wednesday starting this week, Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital will not accept new emergency patients from 5 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. the following day, and will only treat patients who were previously seen at the hospital.

However, the hospital plans to operate the emergency room (ER) as normal on September 18, the last day of the Chuseok holiday, and instead restrict nighttime treatment the following day.

Ajou University Hospital, the regional emergency medical center for the southwestern part of Gyeonggi Province, will restrict operations of emergency rooms every Thursday, starting this week and will only admit adult patients who require cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR).

The move comes after three hospitals in Gangwon and Chungcheong provinces restricted ER services. 

Such hospitals say they have no choice but to adopt such changes due to the collective resignation of resident doctors in February. 

To minimize disruptions in emergency care during the Chuseok holiday, the government will deploy a total of 15 military doctors to hospital emergency rooms starting Wednesday, including three each to the two hospitals.  

The government also plans to dispatch some 230 military and public health doctors from next Monday as part of the government's eighth rotation, giving priority to high-risk facilities.

With the continued disruptions in ER operations, a federation of groups representing patients suffering from six types of serious illnesses released a statement on Wednesday and urged the government to come up with measures, and pleaded for doctors to return to hospitals. 

Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.