Doctors at the nation?s public hospitals, as well those at the hospitals in the Social Security system, spoke out about the crisis facing their endeavors. According to El Caribe, these physicians have seen their monthly salaries fall from US$685 in 1999 to US$337 in 2004. As a result, Waldo Ariel Suero, the president of the Dominican Medical College (CMD), has told the press that they are seriously considering handing over the hospitals to the government of Hipolito Mejia and Public Health Minister Jose Rodriguez Soldevila well before the 16 August change of government. Arias Suero said his group would consult with other doctors across the country regarding this tactic. At yesterday?s meeting of the CMD directors, there was agreement to continue fighting for the two main points deemed most pressing by the assembly of last 16 December: better salaries and better conditions in the hospitals. Meanwhile, the doctors at the nation?s largest maternity hospital continued to attend only the most urgent cases. The doctors at La Altagracia reported that two technicians from the Ministry of Public Health had begun an inventory of the damaged equipment in the maternity hospital that serves the entire country.