30,000 Spanish Health Care Workers Protest ‘Privatisation’
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr
Around 30,000 health care workers protested in Madrid on Sunday alleging the ‘destruction’ of the public health system by the capital region’s conservative regional government of Popular Party’s Isabel Ayuso.
Dressed in white coats and carrying homemade signs with slogans that translated into English as “S.O.S. Public Healthcare” and “Stop Privatisation,” the workers banged drums and chanted: “Cutting a public health is criminal.” They criticised the staff shortage and alleged favouritism towards private health care providers.
The event was the latest in a chain of protests, including strikes, by Madrid’s public health workers against Ayuso’s government, the Associated Press reported. In November, tens of thousands of people marched through central Madrid supporting health workers and calling for better working conditions.
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Tens of thousands of Spanish health workers protest regional government cuts https://t.co/c24zl1gVdB— Caliban (@blues_pablo) January 16, 2023
The unions alleged that Madrid spends the least amount per capita on primary health care of any Spanish region despite having the highest per capita income—for every €2 spent on health care in Madrid, €1 ends up in the private sector.
Dressed as the Grim Reaper and bearing a mock scythe, one protester held a sign reading, “I am Ayuso’s plan for (the) emergency ward.”
“We have about 40 or 50 patients per day and can give them about six minutes each. The problem is that they do not allow us to give proper care to patients,” Ana Encinas (62), a doctor who has worked in primary care in Madrid for 37 years, told Reuters.
Ayuso has been criticised, especially since the pandemic started in 2020, for poor staffing in hospitals and primary health care centres. Denying the accusation of the dismantling of the public health system in favour of private players, Ayuso has alleged that the protests and strikes are being orchestrated by left-wing parties in the run-up to municipal and regional elections in May to undermine her regional government.
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