The government has stressed that there will be no major disruptions resulting from the once-a-week suspension of outpatient treatment by the nation’s major university hospitals. 

Second vice health minister Park Min-soo said in a briefing on Friday that a survey of 88 hospitals run by 40 medical schools found that 87 hospitals are providing medical treatment without disruption. 

Park added that the percentage of fellow doctors signing contracts with 100 teaching hospitals nationwide reached 65-point-eight percent as of Thursday, up from 61-point-seven percent in late April.  

The percentage at the so-called “Big Five” hospitals in the capital region climbed from 65-point-nine percent to 68-point-two percent during the same period. 

The vice minister also unveiled plans for the government to deploy an additional 36 military doctors from next week to help hospitals cope with the vacuum left by trainee doctors who walked off the job in protest of the government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota.