Stoppage of diagnostic and therapy technicians on one side, and nurses on the other: “It was the last straw”.
week of strikes in at least two hospitals of the National Health Service: in Garcia de Orta (ULS Almada-Seixal) and in Braga.
Em Almada-Seixal, nurses are on strike today, Tuesday; those on the morning shift and those on the afternoon shift.
This strike could harm preparations for surgical blocks – anything that is not urgent and close services, namely primary care, health centers, consultations and blocks. The Portuguese Nurses Union expects membership above 70%.
Nurses demand several points: regularization of the progression of career and the assessment of performance, payment of time bank and retroactiveand more hiring.
The hospital administration did not present “a single solution”, claims Zoraima Prado, leader of the Portuguese Nurses Union.
In , Zoraima explains that there was still a meeting last week between the union and the hospital’s “totally closed” board of directors.
Mass “drop of water” was the case of debt which he inherited from ARS – Regional Health Administration. The administrators had assured that they would pay off the debt but, at that meeting, they said that “a working group was created, which, without any basis, concluded that it was not possible to pay”. It is a debt that “proven exists”, he warned.
Parking in Braga
Next Friday, there will be a strike at the Hospital de Braga. Health professionals in the diagnostic and therapeutic areas announced this Tuesday that they are joining this strike.
Here, the reason for the protest is quite different: they are contra the obligation to payment of parking at the Minho hospital.
A statement reads that, for these professionals, parking “does not constitute a benefit, but an essential working condition, taking into account the lack of a public transport network suitable for the hospital’s working hours, particularly at night, weekends and long shifts”.
Employees demand: total and permanent exemption from parking payments for all professionals, an end to discriminatory practices, the creation of exclusive road access for professionals and negotiation with the managing entity to guarantee fair conditions.
