The closed operating rooms and services, closed or running at half speed, are the result of a nurses’ strike at Lisbon’s Santa Maria hospital that began at 8:00 this Thursday and ended at 1:00, according to the union.
About three dozen nurses from the Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte (CHULN), which combines the Santa Maria and Pulido Valente hospitals, were massed at 10:30 am in front of Santa Maria, demanding “urgent hiring” of nurses to meet needs; assessing nurses so they can be hired and maintained; and the end of the stretcher in the service corridors.
Holding a banner reading “Nurses at Santa Maria Hospital Demand Answers and Decent Pay”, nurses chanted slogans such as “Minister listens, nurses fight”, “We have training, we demand appreciation” while waving placards. the flag of the Nursing Union of Portugal (SEP), which called for a strike.
While there is still no data on strike commitment as it is a “very large hospital with over 100 services”, AKP trade union leader Isabel Barbosa provided reporters with some data on the effects of the shutdown.
“Now we can say that out of the six central operating units that will work, only one is open,” the union leader said, adding that the gynecological unit and the immunotherapy day unit also have 100 percent membership.
In the hematology day hospital, adherence is 50%, and minimal services are performed in the intensive care and emergency department.
In these services, which operate 24 hours a day, “patients are never left without care,” Isabelle Barbosa told Lusa.
He also said, referring to the number of nurses who were concentrated in front of the hospital, that “many others” would like to attend, but “because of a shortage, they cannot leave services.”
The nurses are also demanding that the hospital address the issue of stretchers in the corridors, which they consider to be “an unworthy situation for users and healthcare workers.”
“For example, at the Pulido Valente hospital, we have wards that are closed. And why can’t they open? “, – stressed the trade union leader.
In order to keep nurses, “work conditions need to be offered, and that power is in the hands of the administration,” argues Isabel Barbosa.
On March 3, the Portuguese Union of Nurses met with the administration of CHULN, which committed itself to correcting most of the demands of the nurses and, for this reason, suspended the strike, which was decided at the plenary meeting in March.
“More than a month later, we were convinced that the obligations were not fulfilled,” which served as the basis for the strike this Thursday.
The nurses are demanding payment for all overdue overtime and vacations, “fair and legal accounting of points held by nurses and payment of retroactive contributions from 2018”, and “agreement on the number of vacation days among all nurses.”
“It is unacceptable for nurses with a so-called Individual Labor Agreement to have fewer vacation days,” SEP defends.
Asked about new forms of struggle, Isabelle Barbosa said that the union wants to meet with the administration first and then decide, with the nurses, to go where they want, noting that a national nurses’ strike is scheduled for the 12th. May.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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