About a thousand nurses marched through the centre of Zagreb on Saturday marking the International Nurses Day, and protesting against low wages and inadequate work conditions.

This year, International Nurses Day was observed under the motto “Nurses – A Voice to Lead – Health Is a Human Right”. According to the organisers, 38,000 nurses, who are members of their trade union, are considered to be a pillar of the public healthcare system.

Disgruntled nurses demanded that the authorities comply with collective agreements and ensure that their overtime was paid.

In order to express their resentment over their treatment by the authorities, the nurses carried a coffin wrapped in a Croatian flag with a message saying that Croatia “has died aged 27 after a long and difficult fight against fraud, corruption and clientelism and as a result of the incurable disease of societal cancer caused by greedy politicians.”

Nurses say they are leaving Croatia unhappy with work conditions

Recently, nurses associations have made an appeal to stop their departure abroad, warning that Croatia has a shortage of over 10,000 nurses, who they say are leaving because they are unhappy with their work conditions and the Croatian health sector’s failure to recognise their qualifications.