Labor unions and civic organizations are calling for an end to the collective leave of absence by the medical community.

The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (KHMU) issued a statement on Friday demanding that the medical community “rescind the unjustifiable collective leave of absence that disregards patients' lives.”

"There is no rationale or justification for collective closures," the union said. "The collective leave of absence that causes severe and urgent patients to die and misses timely treatment must be canceled," it added.

The medical workers’ union also said it would refuse to reschedule appointments due to closures.

“Hospital workers are not doctors' bogeymen. We refuse to postpone or cancel appointments due to the collective leave of doctors," it said. “Doctors themselves should postpone or cancel appointments without the consent of the scheduled patients, and they should be held accountable."

They also demanded that the government resolve the conflict within this month. "The government should take extraordinary measures to fully resolve the collective refusal of care by trainee doctors and the collective closures by physicians before June passes and normalize healthcare services," it said.

On the same day, People’s Solidary for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), a civic organization, also released a statement calling for the withdrawal of collective leave.

"The sovereignty of healthcare belongs to the citizens, and the reality that the health rights of all citizens are threatened or mocked by the market healthcare system is no longer acceptable," the group said. "Doctors should withdraw their unjustified collective leave and return to their patients."

It also criticized the Korean Medical Association (KMA) for "inciting doctors to refuse to practice medicine."

"The public's anger at the KMA head, who continues to say unspeakable things, is hard to fathom," the solidarity said. "KMA's nonsensical and unprofessional attitude, which is focused only on protecting the vested interests of doctors, more than deserves criticism."

Stressing that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is responsible for prolonging the government-doctor conflict," the group said, "The government should revise the numeric discussion that led to the extreme situation and start preparing a roadmap for building a better public healthcare system, including a plan to train public doctors and make them work efficiently.”