Panama Doctors Strike
Drags on
Panamanian public
hospital physicians on
strike for 39 days have
approved a governmental
pay hike, but are
waiting for a reasonable
agreement with the
government for the
recovery of outpatient
appointments and
surgeries cancelled
since the protest began.
The over 5,000 striking
doctors yesterday
accepted the
governmental proposal of
a 25 percent pay hike,
the issue that had led
to almost six weeks of
bargaining.
However, the strike goes
on today, due to the
unexpected proposal by
the government that they
must give attention to
another eight patients
per day or work six
extra hours on the
weekend to recover the
cancelled outpatient
appointments.
In addition, they would
have to work four extra
hours in the operating
room, or the equivalent
of another two
operations, which the
physicians oppose.
According to official
estimates, over 600,000
outpatient appointments
and thousands of planned
surgeries have been
annulled since the
strike began.
The coordinator of
Comenal (National
Negotiating Medical
Commission), Julio
Garcia, affirmed the
doctors are willing to
recover the appointments
and operations, but need
time. |
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