The Dominican Medical Association (CMD) has announced it will be sitting down for talks with Minister of Public Health Altagracia Guzman today, Monday, 22 February 2016. Since Waldo Ariel Suero was elected as head of the CMD in November 2015, the association has staged a series of strikes affecting work at public hospitals, which mainly service poor people who do not have medical insurance or cannot afford to pay for private health service.
The CMD, which represents public hospital doctors and medical staff, announced at a press conference that the first meeting was scheduled for 6pm on Monday, 22 February. Suero also announced that the planned 72-hour nationwide strike would be suspended.
Health workers are asking for wage increases, the assignation of 5% of Gross Domestic Product to the public health sector, improved conditions in public hospitals, the appointment of more hospital staff and better retirement plants.
During a meeting with editors of daily newspapers held on Wednesday, 17 February 2016, President Danilo Medina commented that the public hospital doctors’ association under Suero had gotten off on the wrong foot and he would not meet with them while they maintained their striking policy. Medina argued that public hospital doctors’ wages already been increased by 30%.
http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/2016/02/19/i205622_medicos-dan-tregua-lucha-por-mejoras-salariales-deciden-dialogar.html
