23 February 2016•Update: 04 April 2016
By Senabri Silvestre
SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep
The Dominican Medical Association (CDM) on Monday threatened a doctors and health care workers strike later this week at state-run hospitals if demands for improved working conditions and salaries aren’t met.
Association president Waldo Ariel Suero, proposed four items in a proposal to improve health systems and doctors’ conditions but Health Minister Altagracia Guzman Marcelino agreed to discuss two of the points.
Guzman suggested to begin work to hire more health employees and to establish better pensions for workers.
But the CDM also wanted included in the discussion its demand for an investment in the health care sectors at 5 percent of the GDP and a 60 percent salary increase for doctors.
Current investment stands at 3 percent of GDP.
The average salary for doctors in the Dominican Republic is about $800 monthly. Suero said he would hold the government responsible for any adverse affects a possible strike may cause patients.
The government is cheating and playing with the public’s health, he said.
"We did not receive any concrete proposal on our four fundamental demands," said a physicians representative following a meeting Monday night. The group said doctors will attend only to emergencies and patients who are critically ill, during the 24-hour walkout.
The CDM on Tuesday will be hold a meeting with workers to decide measures to be adopted after both sides failed to reach an agreement.
Guzman Marcelino said he had hoped for positive results for the public, especially for patients at state hospitals.
"Unfortunately it was not possible and everything seems to be that the medicals will continue in the same position which it held until last week," he said.
The threat of yet another strike comes as the doctors have been on strike since last week in different areas of the country despite a Zika virus outbreak in the Dominican Republic.
