No 961 Monday 6th - Sunday 12th March 2023
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T O R R E V I E J A H O S P I TA L P R O T E S T S E S C A L AT I N G
n Saturday morning, medical staff from Torrevieja hospital and the local health authority, supported by members of the public, and councillors from Torrevieja, including the Mayor, Eduardo Dolón, took to the streets in protest over the way they feel they are being treated by the regional Ministry of Health, resulting in an estimated 3,000 protesting people marching to the town centre.
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Despite working tirelessly throughout the peak of the Covid pandemic, and dealing with considerable staffing issues caused by the reversal of private management at the hospital, the staff have finally had enough, after the Minister of Health, Miguel Mínguez, ended a collective agreement made with the staff, agreed when the hospital was still managed by the private company Ribera Salud. Rather than consult with the workers, or enter into negotiations to change the working conditions, the Minister went straight to court to ask for the agreement to be annulled, angering the medical teams and further contributing to the discontent they were already feeling. The result was that, following a protest and vote at the hospital last week, the first strike in 20 years in public health was called due to the "borderline situation" they are experiencing, and in protest against the permanent overload of care in consultations and the lack of doctors. Strikes were called for both March and April, the latter specifically targeting the busy Easter period, after two months of unsuccessful negotiations with the Ministry of Health and mutual reproaches for having broken contacts.
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