Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong, right, presides a ministry meeting in Seoul, May 2, in this photo provided by the ministry. Yonhap

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong on Thursday urged doctors to join a special committee to seek a compromise over a protracted standoff against the medical reform, while the new head of the doctors' group pledged to pressure the government to abandon the reform.

The mass walkout by trainee doctors, who have left their worksites since Feb. 20 in protest of the government's plan to boost the number of medical students, has shown little signs of a breakthrough, although the labor action has crippled public health services at major hospitals.

"The government has prepared grounds for social discussions through the launch of a special medical reform committee. But separately, the government can discuss one-to-one dialogue with the medical community," Cho told a government response meeting.

Last week, the government formally launched the presidential committee to seek a breakthrough over the standoff, but doctors boycotted it.

"We hope that doctors' organizations will not refuse talks but instead participate in the committee and engage in dialogue with a forward-looking attitude," Cho added.

Meanwhile, the new chief of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), a major lobby group of community doctors, made it clear that he would press the government to reconsider the hike in the number of medical students.

Lim Hyun-taek, the KMA's new head, who started his three-year term Wednesday, said: "The government wants us to fall into conflict and discord. I will focus efforts on promoting and protecting the rights of the members, based on the strong power of unity."

The remark appears to address the looming discord within the medical community, with Park Dan, representing the Korea Intern Resident Association, recently saying that no agreements were reached with the KMA regarding the establishment of a single representative body for the medical community.

"The KMA plans to establish scientific evidence demonstrating that the government's policy is flawed and deplorable," Lim said.

"We aim to correct various unreasonable policies, such as the increase in medical school quotas by 2,000, to guide these policies toward an appropriate direction," Lim added.

About 12,000 trainee doctors have left their worksites since late February in protest of the plan to boost the number of medical students, causing delays in medical treatments, with some emergency rooms partially limiting their treatment of critically ill patients.

Some medical professors, who are senior doctors at university hospitals, also began taking a day off this week, suspending outpatient clinics and surgeries in support of the walkout by trainee doctors. (Yonhap)