Doctors strike, adhesion with peaks of 80 percent

Participation in the general strike called for today (Tuesday 12 November) by public doctors for a new employment contract and to protect the National Health Service has reached peaks of 80 percent. "The participatory membership which, net of the minimum quotas required to remain in service to guarantee emergencies, has reached peaks of membership of 80 per cent, the sit-in in Rome in front of the Ministry of the Economy, the other 50 similar initiatives organized for Italy, testify awareness of the importance of what is at stake” say Anaao Assomed, Cimo, Aaroi-Emac, Fp Cgil doctors and NHS managers, Fvm veterinary and medical federation, Fassid (Aipac-Aupi-Simet-Sinafo-Snr) , Cisl doctors, Fesmed, Anpo-Ascoti-Fials doctors and Uil Fpl national coordination of the medical and veterinary contract areas.

For the unions it is necessary “to oppose an announced death sentence of public health which is simultaneously overwhelming the rights of citizens, who see services taken away day after day or transferred out of their pockets, and those of doctors and health managers, whose role, dignity and professional values are marginalized in a logic of abandonment. And all this despite the recurrence, in these hours, of numerous anti-union behaviors to impede the right to strike, implemented by certain administrations that also in this way trample on the legitimacy of government of the NHS which they institutionally have to guarantee, as also do various operational unit managers, placed in their place by the same policy that appoints the directors".

"We are in a moment of crisis: our healthcare, which used to be the most beautiful in the world, is dramatically declining due to the progressive definancing that has occurred above all in the last five years", he explains to news agencies Andrea Filippi, national secretary Fp Cgil Medici: “The economy is advancing, GDP is growing, and healthcare continues to be sacrificed. The latest budget law essentially proceeds only on propaganda bonuses or electoral tips, and does not in the least affect the reform of the National Health Service. There is no longer any project for the real promotion of the right to health for citizens”. The secretary of the Fp Cgil Medici underlines the "disastrous condition from the point of view of work, organization and working hours. There is a block on turnover, there is no generational turnover, and the government is responding to this with a budget law that only advertises elections through bonuses”. And so he concludes: “Minister Lorenzin, who is in favor of everything the unions do, actually does nothing. It is clear that the National Health Service is in crisis and the GDP points are decreasing more and more. In 2020 we will be below European levels, we will be at Greek levels. Healthcare remains among the first in Europe only thanks to the operators".

The reasons for the strike are many and varied. “For public health, the right of citizens to cure, the right of doctors to cure. For a contract that recognizes the value of our work and improves the conditions for the quality and safety of services for citizens" reads the flyer: "For a civil and strong defense of our professions, their autonomy, , of their role of guarantee for citizens. For the end of precariousness in all sectors of public health and for the creation of new jobs. For the increase in specialist training contracts for young graduates”. Finally, "against the failed political choices of the government on the national health system and on our professional destinies". The protest points the finger in particular against the budget law, “which intervenes mainly through bonuses. On the other hand, there is a lack of real funding for the restructuring of welfare policies and health care, in all of this, is the great excluded ".

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