Djamel Ould Abbas brands doctors' strike as unlawful
The Minister of health, population and hospital reform, Djamel Ould Abbas, has castigated the current strike movement by Algerian specialist doctors by dubbing it as unacceptable and unlawful.
- In a statement to the press in Algiers at the end of an inconclusive meeting with a delegation of striking health practitioners, the health minister repeated that the doctors’ work stoppage was illegal stressing that the sick patients in the country’s hospital and health centers could not be taken “hostage” ,as he put, it by such a strike.
- Mr Djamel Ould Abbas also warned that if the strikers in the health sector did not put an end forthwith to their movement, they would be sued by the relevant authorities before justice.
- He further underlined that the health workers’ claims for higher pay and better working conditions would be addressed in a legal framework through dialogue and concertation.
- However, numerous specialist doctors in hospitals meanwhile planned further sit-ins in university hospitals, according to spokesman Amine Benhabib, as part of the open-ended strike started two weeks ago.
- They also expected a meeting with the Health Ministry, a striking public practitioner told reporters. “We’re currently only at the stage of talks,” added Benhabib, an orthopaedic doctor.
- Among their demands are higher salaries and an end to compulsory work periods of between one and four years in remote regions of Algeria on completion of their medical studies.