BRATISLAVA, December 10, (WEBNOVINY)- The Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) has announced strike alert until all requirements from the memorandum signed by LOZ representatives and Prime Minister Iveta Radicova are fulfilled. LOZ Chairman Marian Kollar informed of the decision at a news conference on Saturday. He said that ruling politicians and some MPs have been flagrantly questioning the document. “We are here to urge the government and parliament to fully and instantly fulfill their commitments towards doctors and patients signed in the memorandum,“ stated Kollar. LOZ remains watchful and if some requirements are not fulfilled it is prepared to repeatedly and instantly act, according to him. The trade union boss said that the announced strike alert is a kind of being on duty for doctors and will not concern patients.
The LOZ boss has no other explanation for recent statements of the prime minister and health minister than absolute loss of trustworthiness. Fulfillment of all requirements is of equal importance for trade unionists. “We warn that the cancellation of hospitals’ transformation is of the same priority to us as other three requirements,” he said. According to him LOZ has been fulfilling without delay all its obligations ensuing from the memorandum. “We are waiting for the same responsible reply from the other side,” underscored Kollar. The current situation gives an explicit answer to which party of the conflict wants to calm down and normalize the situation and which one only talks about it, he opines.
The Cabinet was to approve a fast-track legislative procedure midweek for the law on minimum wages for nurses and midwives allegedly because it originally intended to give a pay rise to doctors via this draft. However the Cabinet ultimately interrupted discussion on this point. Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said that giving the legal framework to the promised pay rise to doctors and the cancellation of the transformation of hospitals to joint stock companies is currently exclusively in the hands of MPs, which was also the reason behind interrupting the discussion. The way, in which the Cabinet will prepare or enable an expedited legislative procedure depends on in what from and way MPs will submit these proposals; whether as independent deputy proposals or as amending proposals to the law, said the prime minister. The Cabinet is prepared to react instantly, she added. Radicova herself expects that the opposition SMER-SD will come up with the cancellation of hospitals’ transformation.
The parliamentary health committee has approved on Thursday a draft amendment to the law on providers of health care ad other draft laws that are to increase doctors‘ pays in 2012 based on the agreement with medical trade unions and also anchor the changes required by doctors. However the draft does not include the demanded cancellation of hospitals’ transformation which was one of the four crucial requirements of protesting doctors.
LOZ organized collective submitting of notices in protest against the situation in health care in late September. It had four demands on the government: to observe the Labor Code, change the system of health care funding, stop transformation of hospitals to joint-stock companies, and increase wages of health care employees. As repeated talks with representatives of the government ended fruitless some, 1,200 notices took effect on December 1. Hospitals suffering from the crucial lack of doctors found themselves on the verge of collapse and thus the government rushed to solve the situation with declaring a state of emergency in thirteen districts, which meant work duty for protesting doctors in order to secure inevitable health care for patients. After two days, a memorandum was signed by Prime Minister Iveta Radicova and LOZ people meeting LOZ demands and putting the protest to its end.
SITA