Health unions to consult doctors about national strike

Health unions are expected to hold extraordinary consultation sessions this week to decided about protests escalation.

• The unions contacted resident doctors who have been on strike for about two months to join an expected strike of public health practitioners. Hospitals will be closed if the health ministry does not keep its promises which were launched, a year ago.
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• President of the National Union of Public Health Practitioners Ilyes Merabet Sunday said a meeting between health unions came up with a decision to escalate protests.
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• “The ministry was keeping silence although it received official correspondences and sits-in were staged out of official institution’s headquarters.”
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• The National Union of Specialist Doctors will organise an extraordinary session on Wednesday while the National Union of Public Health Practitioners are expected to hold its session on Thursday.
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• Ilyes Merabet said all the indicators show that the unions will resume open strikes. “The ministry’s silence and non reply to the unions’ correspondences and our protests will bring hospitals to a real crisis.”
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• He added that although thousands of doctors staged a sit-in out of the ministry and the Palais du Gouvernement last week, the health ministry did not react. The prime minister refused to receive a delegation of the protesters.
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• He also said the sit-in out of the Palais du Gouvernement was the deadline given to the ministry and the government to react and satisfy the doctors’ demands.
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• Last year, open strikes causes a five-month-crisis in hospitals as the former minister did not satisfy the protesters’ demand.
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• Merabet said the health unions plan to organise a strong protesting movement to recover health practitioners’ rights as dialogue had failed on reaching real solutions.