On 30 April, doctors belonging to the Asociación Médica Dominicana (AMD) finally returned to work in the public hospitals, after exactly six months on strike. Their return took place after they were paid for the months of January, February, March and April by the Ministry of Public Health despite not having worked during those months. The Instituto Dominicano de Seguro Social (IDSS) has not, however, paid its AMD members for the time in question, and the work stoppage at its hospitals continues. A smooth transition from the military doctors to those of the AMD was reported in most public hospitals, where despite the presence and efforts by the military, medical services suffered substantially during the strike.
Despite the return of AMD doctors to the public hospitals, the organization’s president, Dr. Francisco Cano González, has pledged that the struggle to support the doctors employed at IDSS hospitals will continue. The AMD will continue to back the continued strike in the IDSS not only because the doctors’ salaries have not been paid, but also because of the dismissal of some 500 AMD members who the directors of the IDSS claim were simply on the payroll and did not work in their hospitals.
10-16 May 1996