HEALTH CRISIS: 75% of public hospital doctors on strike

A protest movement that started  in the Santo Tomas Hospital (HST)in Panama, has spread across the country and by Wednesday  75% of doctors in public hospitals were on strike.

They are opposing  bill 349 Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
Facing the growing revolt,  Democratic Change (CD) deputies in the National Assembly presented a proposal to suspend discussion of the project while continuing to seek consensus. That is something different from what the the medical associations are seeking.

The suspension proposal came from Agustín Sellhorn supported by Assembly  Vice President, Rodney Arauz, but was not voted  on because of differences between the CD and opposition parties.

Representatives of medical associations did not hide their annoyance. Julissa Rodriguez of the Association of Medical Specialists of Santo Tomas said that the proposal does not change anything, since the request of the doctors is that the project  goes back to the first debate to enter into an extensive consultation process.
 "At the moment the strike continues, with the consent of various medical groups that have gradually been added," Rodriguez said.
 Julio Osorio, coordinator of the National Negotiating Medical Commission (Comenenal), said that 75% of physicians in the country are on strike
with  14 of the 15 organizations that form the Comenenal backing the stoppage and more groups joined in on Thursday
Doctors at the HST held a briefing meeting on Wednesday with the participation  of representatives of organized labor, workers, students and indigenous people.
 Mariano Mena, coordinator of the National Council of Organized Workers (CONATO), who attended the meeting, sadid that on Monday, the guild that he heads will decide what action to take to reject the "disastrous" law  project. 
Mena said that the it only affects workers in health and education, but to the general population because "it gives to national and transnational private companies the little heritage to the country still has ".
 Parallel to the meeting of the doctors of the HST, staff at the Children's Hospital conducted meetings to decide whether to participate in the strike indefinitely.
  Samuel Roberts, spokesman for the residents and interns said he joined the strike, because of the  "negative" content of the project to be approved.
 He added that the strike was not just a movement of doctors, but a struggle affecting all citizens equally.
 Members of the Association of Medical Specialists at the Children's Hospital, analyzed the project  and concluded that it would be "the most disastrous Republican law of life," said its president Esteban Perdomo.
Perdomo said he will attend the emergency room, intensive care and hospital patients.
 The Panamanian Dental Association, which brings together the specialists of the Ministry of Health and Social Security Fund is also supporting the strike in Azuero, Colon, Santiago, Changuinola and David.
 Minister of Health, Franklin Vergara, called on doctors to desist from  striking, calling it unnecessary" and harmful to the country's neediest.
 The director of the Social Security Fund, Guillermo Sáez-Llorens, said the strike is "irrelevant and unnecessary"