A medical staffer walks through a hallway in a university hospital in Seoul, March 17. Yonhap

Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo accused medical professors Sunday of blackmailing people after they decided to submit resignations en masse later this month in protest of the government's decision to increase the country's medical school enrollment quota.

Park also reaffirmed that the government's decision to increase the medical school quota by 2,000 from the current 3,058 is not subject to negotiation, rejecting a demand from medical professors that the government first back off from the decision.

Thousands of interns and resident doctors have stayed off the job for nearly a month in protest of the quota hike that they claim would lead to a surplus of physicians and compromise the quality of medical education and services.

"Even professors have declared they would resign collectively unless their demand is met," Park said on YTN TV. "This is huge blackmail against people ... We have to break the cycle of collective action in the medical sector."

The emergency committee of medical professors announced after a meeting Friday night that professors from 16 medical schools decided to submit resignations en masse on March 25 in an effort to seek a breakthrough in the prolonged impasse.

Park also rejected calls for raising health insurance payments to doctors, especially those in essential sectors short of physicians, saying such hikes without increasing the medical school quota would lead to a four-to-five fold hike in health insurance premiums.

The government has been pushing to sharply raise the number of medical students to brace for the country's fast-aging population, and a shortage of physicians in rural areas and essential areas, such as pediatrics and emergency departments.

Doctors, on the other hand, say the quota hikes will undermine the quality of medical education and result in higher medical costs for patients. They have called for measures to first address the underpaid specialists and improve legal protection against excessive medical malpractice lawsuits.

But Park said the government cannot accept doctors turning away from their patients even if they have concerns about the government's policy.

"Professors say they will not stand still if their pupils face disadvantage, and this is a remark that challenged the rule of law." (Yonhap)