Most medical staff is back at work at public hospitals in the Dominican Republic after a 72-hour work stoppage in demand for wage increases in the 2014 National Budget. Nevertheless, according to reports, nurses will remain on strike at the Jose Maria Cabral y Baez Hospital in Santiago and the Pascasio Toribio Bencosme Hospital in Moca.
National Nursing Workers Union (Sinatrae) spokesman Silvano Geraldino said that their demands include the appointment of 50 new nurses and of another 30 workers at the Cabral y Baez hospital.
“A nurse in this hospital attends 40 patients in a day and this is an excess workload that affects the health of these public servants,” said Geraldino.
The nurses are also demanding repairs to the hospital building as well as medicines and medical supplies including gloves, syringes and other equipment.
They also demand the application of the incentives for seniority, incentives of the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa) and for 4% of GDP to be assigned to the health sector.