Medical interns and residents are writing letters of resignation, prompted by the government’s announcement on Tuesday to increase the number of medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 from next year.

These trainee doctors also protested the government's essential healthcare-enhancing policy package.

According to medical sources, all 20 interns at a university hospital have voluntarily written their resignations and kept them. It was uncertain who encouraged them to do so, but the interns wrote their resignations one after another. They have yet to submit their resignations to the hospital, however.

Some medical residents said they have already tendered their resignations individually. A majority expressed their views on quitting instead of taking collective action. The current trend is different from the 2020 when young doctors took annual leave simultaneously and downed stethoscopes and scalpels, the sources said.

The government’s pressure also seems to be behind the resignation of interns and doctors. The Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a restraining order against collective action and threatened to punish those who violate it. The ministry also organized a task force to monitor the movements of training doctors. It is preparing to issue an order to resume work against striking doctors and punish violators.

That only aggravated training doctors’ antipathy, though. According to the sources, there is even talk of abandoning the training course to become specialists.

"I want to take this opportunity to resign and take a few months off," one medical resident was quoted as saying. Others said that it is not a collective action if they resign individually, and they have no reason to receive the order to resume work.

The Korean Intern and Resident Association (KIRA) will hold an extraordinary general assembly next Monday to discuss how to respond, but some have already started taking action.

In response, the Health and Welfare Ministry convened the heads of training hospitals, such as hospital directors, vice directors, or planning and management office heads, for an online meeting on Wednesday.

Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyu-hong chaired the meeting, and other senior ministry officials attended it.

"Medical organizations, including the Korean Medical Association and the Korean Intern and Resident Association, are threatening to take collective action against the increase in medical school students," the ministry said in its document to convene the meeting. "We will hold an online meeting of training hospitals to discuss measures to respond to collective action in the medical community, so we hope the heads of each training hospital will attend."