Doctors remain on strike after march on National Assembly

Panama’s  striking  public health doctors  will carry on their protest against  Bill 349 until it is returned to the first debates says Nestor Vega, president of the Association of Medical Specialists of St. Thomas Hospital (HST).

HST is where  the  doctor protests first began before  spreading rapidly across the country and involving other medical support staff.

Vega told La Prensa that  doctors remain in the struggle against the project aiming to create  the Public Private Partnership (PPP), until it  is  returned to first debate in the National Assembly.

A group of physicians were at the National Assembly on Monday night where deputies met for  the last ordinary session of the legislature.

In the afternoon  hundreds of doctors and other health workers marched to the Assembly.
 "We will re-evaluate our struggle on Tuesday" (November 1) he said. A special session can still be called  to send bill 349 to the first debate.

He strongly refuted  allegations from the Minister of Health that the work stoppage had political overtones and asked  the Government to prove that the doctors had  some political interest behind their protests.

The Minister of Health, Franklin Vergara, had said that behind the doctors' strike is a "political agenda "because" they have taken an extreme measure that is not usual.

Vega responded: "To say that this is political is a super easy way out."