Anger grows in Poland over hospital strikes

Families shouted abuse at medical workers when patients were shuttled between hospitals after staff said they could no longer care for them at the weekend. Although emergency services are still available, many hospitals are providing reduced care. Medical workers and unions met the health minister on Monday, but talks ended with no sign of a deal.Protesting Polish doctors and nurses came under growing criticism over their two-month-old pay strike on Monday with patients' groups and media accusing them of putting lives at risk. "It is a shame the sick are becoming hostages in a fight for money," said patients' group Primum Non Nocer in a statement on its Website, while adding that it understood the pay demand. "Doctors, has Satan possessed you," read the headline in Poland's best-selling daily, Fakt. The mass market Super Express daily said "It's enough. Doctors you can't do this to us." State medical workers feel left behind by big pay rises for other professions since Poland's entry to the European Union in 2004 stoked an economic boom. Emigration has also led to a tighter labour market and helped push wages higher. "We have a right to strike like any other Polish citizen," said one striking nurse, adding the action would eventually benefit patients. Growing demonstrations and hunger strikes by some hospital staff have increased pressure on the conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, but he has so far refused to meet the demands for big pay increases. "We are willing to talk about everything, but not immediately, and without thought for economic consequences," Kaczynski told a news conference. "We are not going to let them terrorise us." (Additional reporting by Dagmara Leszkowicz)
Source: By Agnieszka Flak, Reuters, alertnet.org