The government on Thursday again asked hospitals to complete accepting resignations of trainee doctors by next Monday, although hospitals want to extend the deadline because they need more time to do so. The deadline is seen as crucial for the government to help persuade trainee doctors, who have left their worksites since late February in protest of medical reform, to return to hospitals as it is linked to a schedule to hire trainee doctors in September. Accepting the resignations of trainee doctors allows them to find jobs at other hospitals. "We ask training hospitals to accept resignations of junior doctors who do not return by July 15, so that the procedures to recruit new trainees for the second half can proceed on schedule," Director General for Healthcare Policy Kim Kook-il said during a briefing. More than 12,000 trainee doctors, over 90 percent of the total, have been on strike in the form of mass resignations since Feb. 20 in protest of the government's medical school admissions quota hike. On Monday, the government decided to withdraw all punitive measures against trainee doctors defying return-to-work orders, in an effort to seek a breakthrough in the monthslong medical service disruptions. Source: Yonhap News Agency