Doctor's strike set to go ahead as planned on Saturday

Doctors have presented to the public their program for tomorrow's protest in Zagreb, which will be held under the slogan: "An S.O.S. for Croatian Health." They claim that they are overburdened with work, and that as a result their patients are also paying a price. The protest is being organized by five doctors associations.

Protesters will gather tomorrow at 10 AM at Franje Tuđman Square, and plan to be at Saint Mark's Square at around 11:30. Ahead of the protest they re-iterated their reasons for staging the protest, with the president of the Croatian Doctors Union, Dr. Renata Čulinović Čajić, saying that the house is on fire: “And instead of trying to put out the fire, politicians are pouring gas on the flames.”

The President of the Croatian Doctors Association Dr. Krešimir Luetić emphasized that the protest is not meant as an attack on any one group: “This is not a protest against anyone, this is a protest for better working conditions for doctors, for a better health care system, and ultimately a protest for our patients.”

Dr. Marin Smilović from the Young Doctors Initiative noted that no one wants to leave Croatia in search for better working conditions: “Unfortunately our system is forcing us to do so. Fewer and fewer young people decide to study medicine and become doctors at all.”

Dr. Smilović added that every third young doctor leaves Croatia for better jobs abroad and every third doctor is over the age of fifty. Health Minister Vili Beroš however, claims that this is not true: “That simply isn't true. We will try to get to the real data and see what the real picture is.”

Source: HRT