SEOUL, Medical school professors are expected to join a planned strike by doctors next week to lend support for their colleagues protesting the government's medical reform plan, officials said Monday. The national medical professors' council plans to hold a general meeting Wednesday to decide whether to go on strike on June 18, after the Korean Medical Association (KMA) announced its plan Sunday to hold a nationwide strike on the day, according to the officials of the medical community. The council is an association for professors from 40 medical schools nationwide, and they are also members of the KMA as they serve as senior doctors at major hospitals. "Each school has collected opinions on a strike. We are likely to join the move by the KMA," a council official said. An emergency response committee of Sungkyunkwan University professors said that the professors will take a day off on June 18, and they will discuss how to react in accordance with the government's responses. Sungkyunkwan medical school p rofessors work at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. It would be the first time that all doctors in the country, including community doctors, take collective action en masse since February, when a majority of junior doctors left their worksites in protest against the government's plan to dramatically raise the medical school admission quota to address problems stemming from a shortage of doctors. Despite fierce opposition from the medical community, the government finalized adding about 1,500 seats to the admission quota for next year, the first increase in 27 years. The ongoing walkout by trainee doctors has disrupted medical services, and the planned strike is feared to further worsen the situation. The KMA represents around 140,000 doctors and over 20,000 medical school students across the country. Source: Yonhap News Agency