Healthcare crisis coming to a head

Doctors at the hospital have already fulfilled their monthly working time limit and, in line with a new EU directive, demanded extra pay for any more work. "We can't afford it," said the hospital manager. The evacuation was halted in the afternoon, however, when the doctors, who had originally demanded their salaries to be raised to zł.5,200 gross, finally agreed to a pay offer. Meanwhile, negotiations between hospital and nurses' unions continued in the Mazovia region. Nurses have threatened to strike on January 21 at hospitals that grant pay rises to doctors only. Nurses are demanding monthly salaries of zł.3,000. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A4; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) R.M.