The medical community is expected to launch a collective action next week in protest of the government's medical reforms, starting with an indefinite suspension of treatment by Seoul National University(SNU) medical professors on Monday.

An emergency committee of SNU medical professors said in a press release on Saturday that over 400 professors at four affiliated hospitals in the capital region are joining the collective action, reducing planned outpatient consultations, or deferring surgeries.

Others at hospital units treating emergency, critical and rare disease patients, however, will not take part in the action, according to the committee.

While members of the Korean Medical Association(KMA), which mostly represents doctors in private practice, are seeking to shut down their clinics on Tuesday, professors at 35 out of 40 medical schools in the country have decided to halt medical services on the same day.

The government, in response, plans to issue an order for all the clinics to remain open on Tuesday, and to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, doctors in essential medicine, such as obstetrics, anesthesia and pediatrics, have declared their intent not to participate in the KMA's walkout.