HEALTH workers across Europe are fighting to defend their jobs, conditions of employment and the services they provide to millions of workers and their families, all coming under vicious attack from bankrupt capitalist governments.
Thousands of doctors and nurses took to the streets of Berlin and other German cities on Wednesday in protest against the government’s planned ‘reform’ programme which is aimed at cutting the wages of health workers by one billion euros in a single year.
The proposed ‘restructuring’ would also reduce the number of hospital beds in Germany. Over 10,000 hospital workers demonstrated in Berlin on Wednesday against the new legislation which is aimed at imposing a massive cut to health budgets.
‘We demand a reform aimed towards well-being of the patients,’ chairman of the medical union DKG Thomas Reumann told the mass rally in Berlin. The proposed new law would award financial bonuses to hospitals which increase ‘efficiencies’ and cut the budget of those which don’t.
The government states that the aim of the legislation is to encourage medical facilities to specialise more and to cut down on hospital beds. The DKG, however, opposes the reduction of the number of beds, insisting on the need for more funding for hospitals.
The ‘reform’ would cut a billion euros in health workers’ personal wages in 2017, Reumann warned. The representatives of the medical workers demanded that the government train and recruit more medical staff to help the hospitals struggling to cope.
According to Ver.di union, German hospitals are short of a massive 162,000 employees countrywide. The medical profession has long had to rely on migrant workers in a bid to fill in the vacancies.
The legislation proposal is spearheaded by the health minister Hermann Gröhe, from the conservative CDU party.
‘The hospital reform doesn’t even come close to filling in the medical workforce gap,’ the Green party’s Elisabeth Scharfenberg said. The final version of the law is expected to come into force in January next year.
In Italy on Wednesday the doctors’ unions rejected a proposed government decree law that would impose fines on doctors who prescribe ‘useless treatment’ for patients. The doctors called the proposed legislation ‘a real devaluation of the role of health professionals’.
Doctors’ unions, the Fp-Cgil Medici and the Federation of Family doctors Fimmg, said after a meeting of union leaders with health minister Beatrice Lorenzin that they were ‘sharply against’ the proposed decree law.
The government claims the proposed law is designed to curb unnecessary health spending in the public sector through a crackdown on ‘useless’ or ‘inappropriate’ examinations and medical visits that it claims cost the national health service an estimated 13 billion euros a year.
‘We expressed our bewilderment and opposition,’ said FP-CGIL leader Massimo Cozza, ‘especially with regard to the idea of fining doctors financially. ‘This would be a mechanism that could smash the relationship between doctors and patients.’
Both unions warned that they will step up industrial action against the government unless the measures are dropped. We will widen our mobilisation … against doctors being treated like criminals,’ said Silvestro Scotti from the Fimmg.
Doctors also oppose the proposed law as it would mean patients paying for more services and because it would be impossible for regional health authorities to enforce. Union proposals to modify the draft decree were sent to the government on Friday when the High Health Council, which approves the government plans, was due to provide some clarifications.
The draft then would be examined by the Conference of Regional States.
• Meanwhile, in Britain, junior doctors are holding a mass demonstration on Monday and their representatives are meeting today, Saturday, to consider industrial action. Junior doctors in England are outraged by the Tories’ planned imposition of a new contract which involves pay cuts of up to 30%, with overtime rates being scrapped for work between 7am and 10pm on every day apart from Sunday.
After years of training and student debt this is a kick in the teeth which could result in a flight to medical jobs abroad or other professions, warn the junior doctors. One wrote: ‘The issue of cutting junior doctors’ wages and increasing hours is the latest example of the Government pushing the service to the brink.
‘As medicine is a globally transferable skill, more and more doctors will choose to work abroad instead of working for the life-crippling NHS.’ Many are calling for an urgent ballot for industrial action. On Monday, a group of junior doctors under the banner ‘Save Our Contracts’ plan to demonstrate outside a meeting to discuss the proposals convened by NHS Employers.
In an open letter to trainees, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has pledged its support for the junior doctors’ case. The letter states that ‘the imposition of this new contract, as currently presented, will adversely affect recruitment, retention and the morale of our trainee workforce’.
In August, Tory Health Secretary Hunt announced that a new contract would be imposed on junior doctors in England. The Scottish and Welsh administrations, however, have said they will continue with current arrangements. Mona, a junior doctor and BMA member, spoke to News Line on the picket line outside Ealing Hospital on Thursday morning.
She said: ‘The government is attacking junior doctors, our contract is being cut. It’s disgusting.
‘We’ve got a protest in Westminster on Monday at 7pm. I love Ealing Hospital. I am coming to the Conference to Save Ealing Hospital on Sunday and will give out leaflets to my patients.’
