Kosovo’s state healthcare workers are ending the year with a two-day country-wide strike, demanding higher salaries.
Public health institutions in Kosovo started a strike on Wednesday, demanding a pay rise. The strike is continuing on Thursday.
The head of the Healthcare Trade Union Federation, Blerim Syla, on Wednesday said that if the government ignores their demands, more strikes may be on the way.
“Measures will be radicalised with protests in squares … we have a human right to take off our white coats and go home if the state does not pay us,” Syla said.
Doctors in Kosovo currently earn about 600 euros per month.
Buyt Syla said that doctors feel unappreciated as they can easily get similar pay outside healthcare institutions and with much less responsibility and stress. “It is much easier for politicians, if you just look at their bank accounts,” Syla added.
All the clinics of the University Clinical Center of Kosovo, UCCK, and other health institutions joined the strike. However, emergency cases are still getting full treatment.
Basri Lenjani, the director of the Emergency Clinic at the UCCK, told BIRN that in around five hours the centre had accepted around 40 cases, which is much higher than usual.
“The Emergency Clinic has increased its readiness due to the strikes … we guarantee care and emergency health access to all citizens 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Lenjani said.
He added that the Emergency Clinic also supports the strikers’ demands “to regulate the social dignity of health professionals”.
Another service that is functioning during the strike is the intensive care unit at the Cardiology Clinic.
“Two doctors are treating those cases, meaning there is no lack of dedication to work, but the other staff respect the decision for the strike,” Imri Jashari, the director of the Cardiology Clinic, told BIRN.
Jashari said the work conditions for highly educated medical staff were “miserable”.
“There is huge dedication and great investment by healthcare workers, while on the other hand the appreciation of our society and state for this category [of work] is just miserable,” he said.
However, some people in need of help were unhappy that their local medical facilities were closed.
Besim Dermaku, 51, from Pristina, told BIRN that his wife was in a critical condition and needed emergency care, but could not be treated at his local healthcare centre.
“They did not accept us but just told us: ‘We are on strike and only treat serious cases’. I told them that it was very serious and she could not even stand, so I brought her to the emergency centre, where she is being properly treated,” he told BIRN.
Apart from the Healthcare Trade Union Federation, a group of surgeons has been on strike for days now, also demanding higher wages, through a categorisation of salaries based on education and merit.
The Balkaninsight
