The government is considering "placing area restrictions” on receiving trainee doctor applications in the second half of this year scheduled for September.

It said so on Thursday at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters’ regular briefing to deal with doctors’ collective action.

Training hospitals held a meeting recently and announced that they would propose to the government to accept resignation letters from trainee doctors uniformly as of Feb. 29, restrict special cases so that trainee doctors can only apply for the same region and the same subject when they return to work in September, and postpone the vacancy confirmation date for the second half of the year by one week.

Regarding the time of resignation, the government reiterated that the resignation order was effective as of June 4 when it was withdrawn. The government added that the extension of the deadline for accepting resignation letters could not be changed from July 15 as it had notified in advance.

However, the government said it is examining the request to limit the special exemption so that only those in the same region and the same subject can apply when they return to work in September.

"We are listening to various opinions on the issue of restricting the region," said Kim Kook-il, the healthcare policy officer at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. "We will listen to the opinions and decide on the matter soon.