Doctors and healthcare professionals of the public and subsidized Catalan system are called to a new strike day on Wednesday, May 20, by the call of Metges de Catalunya. The strike will affect public and subsidized healthcare throughout Catalonia and brings the number of medical strike days registered since October of last year to 11.
The protest comes after ten previous days without an agreement being reached with the Departament de Salut or the companies providing the system. That is the point of friction that the union places at the center of the conflict, because it maintains that safe and quality care depends on labor and professional improvements for the physicians.
The May 20th strike adds 11 days since October
Doctors of Catalonia maintains the call for May 20 directed at medical and healthcare personnel. The union thus chains a new day of strike within a calendar of mobilizations that began last October.
The organization has made it clear that it will not withdraw the protest as long as the Department of Health and its supplier companies do not agree to negotiate changes in working conditions. In its approach, Wednesday's call-up raises the number of medical strike days in the Catalan system to 11 since the start of the conflict.
The union links labor negotiation with safe care
Metges de Catalunya maintains that the working and professional conditions of doctors have a direct relationship with the care the population receives. That is why it frames the strike not only as a labor claim, but also as a demand linked to the functioning of the healthcare system.
In that message to patients and users, the union warns that improving the situation of doctors is the guarantee for maintaining safe, quality healthcare with a future. It also insists that the conflict will remain open as long as there is no negotiation on these improvements with the Department of Health and the provider companies.
Metges de Catalunya sets the next strike day for Wednesday, May 20, and keeps it conditional on the Department of Health and its supplier companies agreeing to negotiate labor and professional improvements for the physicians.