ZAGREB, Jan 21 (Hina) - The government cannot agree to an ultimatum by unions regarding the 45 percent increase in doctors' wages in the times when Croatian hospitals owe 1.6 billion kuna to suppliers, Health Minister Andro Vlahusic
said on Tuesday.
ZAGREB, Jan 21 (Hina) - The government cannot agree to an ultimatum
by unions regarding the 45 percent increase in doctors' wages in the
times when Croatian hospitals owe 1.6 billion kuna to suppliers,
Health Minister Andro Vlahusic said on Tuesday. #L#
"If we raise doctors' wages, how will we pay the debts to suppliers
so that Croatian citizens could be provided with medications,"
Vlahusic asked the president of the Croatian Doctors' Union (HLS),
Ivica Babic during a radio broadcast on Tuesday.
The average net wage in December in the Dubrava clinic hospital
amounted to 8,919 kuna, the wage in Koprivnica's hospital amounted
to 11,180 kuna, in Karlovac 10,700 kuna, Vinkovci 10,900 kuna and in
Zadar 9,900 kuna, Vlahusic stressed.
The government is prepared to increase doctors' wages by 10
percent, but the HSL insists on the 45 percent increase, which in
Vlahusic's opinion represents a wish to use the strike to topple the
government.
The Minister also accused the HSL of exceeding its authorities by
calling on the patients not to come to hospitals and politicising
the entire case by seeking support of political parties.
Doctors must take and examine all patients with the referral slip of
their family doctor, said Vlahusic and added that patients could
not establish their condition by themselves.
Vlahusic warned that the Health Ministry would not be held
responsible if the lives of patients were jeopardised due to the
strike, but the organisers and doctors personally.
Primary health care is not on strike, neither are emergency rooms,
while outpatient clinics are processing all emergency cases, so
citizens' health will not be jeopardised, the HSL president
responded and accused the health minister of spreading false
information.
The union did not call on patients not to come to hospitals but to
express solidarity with doctors, Babic added.
He said the strike would continue because not a single state
institution had invited union representatives for negotiations and
dialogue. Babic also announced criminal charges against minister
Vlahusic due to his attempts to illegally stop the strike and count
strikers.
(hina) it sb