Trainee doctors at five major general hospitals in the capital region have decided to submit their letters of resignation en masse by Monday in protest of the government’s planned expansion of the medical school admissions quota.

The Korea Intern Resident Association(KIRA), representing the nation’s medical residents and interns, announced the decision on Friday after a three-hour emergency meeting with the representatives of trainee doctors at the five hospitals, which ended at 2 a.m. Friday. 

The KIRA said that the trainee doctors at the five hospitals also plan to walk off the job at 6 a.m. next Tuesday.

The KIRA plans to form an emergency committee involving the representatives and conduct a survey on trainee doctors at other training hospitals on their intent to join the mass resignation. 

The five hospitals are Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital, Samsung Medical Center, Asan Medical Center and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital.

In a bid to block a potential strike, the government has ordered training hospitals to reject such resignation letters from intern and resident doctors.