Algeria: Health ministry dismisses striking doctors

Algerian health ministry started dismissing striking doctors as a 72-hour-deadline expired to stop the national strike in hospitals.

• Secretary General of the ministry sent telegraphs to a number of hospital directors to dismiss a number of striking doctors and introduce them into disciplinary committee.
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• Leader of Health Public Practitioner’s Union Lyes Merabet said the ministry persisted in its repressive measures.
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• “After being laid-off and prevented from gathering in hospitals, the ministry dismisses doctors who spent their life in performing their duty and saving millions of people.”
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• He said the unions block is attached to its protesting movement and doctors are unified and angry more than ever. They will hold emergency meetings to consider a response and escalation.
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• The doctors plan to submit the dismissal decisions to lawyers to defend them in the lawsuit against the Algerian health minister Djamel Ould Abbas.
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• The Union’s leader called on all the doctors to gather out of the ministry’s headquarters on Sunday as a first response and escalation.