The government plans to issue orders for private practitioners to carry out medical treatment and to report their closure in advance after the Korean Medical Association(KMA) announced a plan to launch an all-out strike next Tuesday. 

Health minister Cho Kyoo-hong announced the plan on Monday ahead of a government meeting on doctors’ collective action, saying that the government will issue the orders in accordance with the medical law. 

The minister said that the government will also initiate a legal review to decide whether the KMA, which is encouraging doctors’ collective action, is in violation of the Fair Trade Act.

Minister Cho said that these moves are the minimum necessary measures to protect the people’s lives and health in response to the planned general strike by doctors, criticizing it as an unacceptable action that threatens the lives of citizens and patients.

The KMA, the nation’s largest doctors’ group, announced on Sunday that it will launch a full-scale strike and hold a massive rally next Tuesday.