Doctors and nurses' aides began a partial walkout on Wednesday without causing major disruptions in opposition to the recently approved legal revisions designed to improve working conditions for nurses by stipulating their roles and responsibilities.

Thirteen organizations, including the Korean Medical Association, started a collective action to take leave or reduce service hours, with plans to hold rallies nationwide to condemn the opposition-led push to pass the Nursing Act.

The groups have scheduled the rallies to begin at 5 p.m. to minimize the inconvenience to the public, with ten-thousand members of the Korean Licensed Practical Nurses Association expected to take part.

No group action among specialists or residents is apparent at general hospitals, with the Korean Intern Resident Association announcing on Tuesday that it will not participate despite supporting the move in principle. 

The government, which issued the lowest "attention" level on the four-tier medical and health care disaster crisis alert, checked up on the situation during an emergency meeting presided over by second vice health minister Park Min-soo.

The groups plan to stage a second round of leaves, reduced hours and rallies on May 11 and launch a general strike on May 17 should either their demands for reconsideration of the bill be rejected or President Yoon Suk Yeol does not exercise his right to veto the revisions.

Opposition from doctors is based on a suspicion that the wording "regional community nursing" in the bill may open a path for nurses to start their own clinics, while nurses' aides take issue with limiting eligibility to high school graduates, unchanged from the current law.

The groups also characterized as "excessive" and "unconstitutional" another set of disputed revisions aimed at revoking licenses of medical personnel sentenced to prison.