Italian doctors on strike in defense of the national health system, in Rome, July 22,
Italian
doctors and healthcare workers have staged a nationwide strike to
protest against deep incisions to the country's health service sector.
According to the medical unit of Italy's largest trade union, CGIL, the four-hour strike on Monday will lead to the cancellation of 500,000 appointments and nearly 30,500 medical operations across the country.
“We want to defend a public service that is more and more impoverished and that is no longer able to guarantee proper care for the people,” said Massimo Cozza, head of the CGIL’s medical department, who joined about 400 medics during a protest at the Ministry of Economy in the capital city of Rome.
The protest is part of a broader campaign set to attract thousands of people to the streets in October and increase pressure on Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s government, which plans to resume spending cuts to the healthcare sector.
Health workers unions said their contracts have remained unchanged since 2009.
Former PM Mario Monti introduced a series of spending cuts, pension changes and tax hikes in November 2011, stirring serious concern for many people in the debt-ridden country.
The government says the reforms are needed to create jobs, increase competition, and cut costs in the third largest eurozone economy, which has been slow to grow over the past decade.
Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Over the past decade, Italy has been the slowest growing economy in the eurozone.
GMA/SS
