ZAGREB, Jan 18 (Hina) - The Croatian Doctors' Union's strike committee decided on Saturday that all admissions to hospitals and surgeries which were not urgent would be halted starting Monday.
ZAGREB, Jan 18 (Hina) - The Croatian Doctors' Union's strike
committee decided on Saturday that all admissions to hospitals and
surgeries which were not urgent would be halted starting Monday.
#L#
No polyclinic will work, also starting Monday, while all emergency
patients will be admitted in hospitals' outpatient departments,
following instructions by the Croatian Doctors' Corps.
Hospitals are obliged to set telephone numbers at which patients
will be given all the necessary information and advice.
Talking to reporters today, union president Ivica Babic said: "We
have shown good will for social dialogue but nobody from the
government has contacted us, so our compromise offer for a 28
percent wage increase is valid until next Wednesday".
Afterwards, the union will return to its original demand for a 45
percent pay rise.
Babic said he had unofficial information that sense would prevail
in the government but that in the contrary, the doctors were ready
for a long strike.
Asked how the strike, which started on Wednesday, would reflect on
patients, Babic said the union was satisfied with how they had
reacted to the doctors' demands.
Responsibility for the consequences of the strike will lie with
those who neglected the demands, he added.
The strike committee decided today it would not demand the
resignation of Health Minister Andro Vlahusic and Nikica Gabric,
the president of the Health Insurance Institute's commission for
ethics and deontology, but request it be established if, because of
their attitude towards their colleagues and calling, they had
broken the ethics and deontology code.
Babic said doctors would compensate after for what they failed to
during the strike.
He denied all union announcements that coroner services would be
put on hold, saying the possibility was only considered.
(hina) ha