Growing support for Santo Tomas striking doctors

Many who voted for change in the last  election are feeling the bloom is disappearing   from the  political promises and are starting to kick back.

In the last week the Citizens' Assembly representing 30 organizations, condemned the “maelstrom of corruption” and influence peddling surrounding the government, and Panama remaines mired with one of the worst educational systems in the world.

The Ministry of Health, denied the budgets it requested is facing a growing storm in the medical community with discontent within the CSS  and  doctors  are on strike at the revered Santo Tomas Hospital.

On Sunday night the Negotiating Medical Commission (Comenenal)  announced its decision to join the strike. 

The measure, said a  press release, is based on "the government trying  to pass in  second reading Bill 349, Public-Private Partnership which seeks to legitimize the privatization of public services."

According to  Comenenal, the "entering of  private business into the management of public affairs, enables state constitutional powers (such as education and public health) to become a business investment."
It  adds that the CSS (Social Security) received  presentations  "intended to privatize in the form of outsourcing," hemodialysis programs and primary care.