FIVE hospitals in Bratislava administered by the FNsP Teaching Hospital and Policlinics went on strike yesterday in a protest over low wages and some reforms to the health-care sector.
Hospitals in other Slovak towns should gradually join the strike starting today. The strike has no time limit.
According to the SME daily, the start of the strike was chaotic. FNsP Director Valerián Potičný allegedly prevented staff who had joined the strike from coming to work (where they would have offered at least emergency services), and temporarily suspended head doctors and nurses from duty.
Potičný argued that the measure was necessary to ensure that the hospitals continued to function with staff who had decided not to join the strike.
Some nurses said the management of their hospitals had threatened them that they would lose their jobs if they joined the strike.
According to Potičný, about half of all medical staff joined the strike.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
TheSlovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the informationpresented in its Flash News postings.
