Doctors’ associations announce protest for March 18

NEWS 13.02.202315:14 0 komentara
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Five umbrella medical associations announced on Monday that they would stage a protest outside the government and parliament headquarters on March 18 to warn the government of the need to meet urgently their demands, made public in August 2022. Pročitaj više

The decision about the protest comes after a survey was conducted, with 5,700 doctors from across the country having responded to it, which shows that 97% of them are dissatisfied with their labour status.

The associations noted that Health Minister Vili Beros in August 2022 agreed with them on the need to deal with burning issues that worry doctors and promised to set deadlines for their settlement, but that nothing has happened since.

Demands

“Politicians are not honouring their agreement with us. We have our backs against the wall, we cannot tolerate stalling and calculation. We must do something for the patients because the system is breaking down,” Croatian Doctors Union (HLS) leader Renata Culinovic-Caic told the press.

She noted that their demands were aimed at protecting the system, preventing the brain drain of doctors and improving services for patients.

The five umbrella medical associations want the job complexity indices for specialists to be made equal to those of subspecialists and those of doctors in primary health care to be made the same as those of hospital doctors, as well as an increase of at least 10% for doctors undergoing specialist training.

They want a law on the labour status of doctors to be adopted by the end of the spring session of the parliament, the work of doctors at all levels of health care to be aligned with time and personnel standards, and the abolishment of current specialisation contracts which they consider very unfavourable for doctors.

Culinovic-Caic said that all medical institutions would be working on the day of the protest, March 18.

Doctors’ strike is possible

In a comment on a statement released earlier in the day by the Health Ministry, calling on the associations to engage in direct dialogue with the ministry rather than holding press conferences, Culinovic-Caic said that the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) was the only one invited to the meeting at the ministry, wondering which of the parties involved actually wanted dialogue.

She said that their further activities would depend on the ministry and government’s actions.

“If necessary, we will go on strike,” said Culinovic-Caic.

HLK president Kresimir Luetic expressed confidence that all doctors’ associations would receive an invitation to talks from the ministry.

“Doctors have been patient enough, but we have our backs against the wall. It’s time we took the only form of action we have left. Doctors have had enough of participating in working groups that are not solving anything. We want concrete solutions for our system and patients,” he said.

‘Inaction has led to shortage of doctors’

“The poor solutions so far and the inaction of the health administration have resulted in a disastrous shortage of family medicine doctors, which has led to an unreasonable workload on and exhaustion of medical teams,” said Natasa Ban-Toskic, head of the Association of Family Medicine Doctors (KOHOM).

She added that doctors should not tolerate patients’ anger and objections being redirected to health sector workers because they were not to blame for poor strategies.

Inspection teams that were recently sent to medical institutions “are a clear form of pressure on doctors”, she said, wondering about the timing of the inspections.

The head of the Croatian Association of Hospital Doctors (HUBOL), Ivana Smit, said that every year the hospital sector records three million hours of overtime work, pointing to a lack of time and personnel norms.

Mirjana Livojevic of the Young Doctors Initiative said that the solutions offered include those for the problem of unfavourable work contracts for doctors undergoing specialist training, but noted that they were being ignored.

Those solutions include a new programme for specialist training and better education for young people to put an end to the worrying trend of young people leaving the country after graduating, she said.

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