Patients support nationwide doctors warning strike

Services were limited to emergency treatment and non-acute patients were turned away. But unlike last year, when there was much recrimination from patients, yesterday many patients knowingly stayed away and the few who did come tended to be supportive. "If the government refuses to negotiate with doctors, they have every right to strike," said one patient in Katowice. The mood among doctors is said to be combative. "Doctors at 40 hospitals are prepared to tender resignations, and on June 1, we will stop filling out any medical documentation except death certificates," said Piotr Watola, a union leader at an Oswiecim hospital. "We do not just want higher pay, but a sustainable improvement in conditions for hospitals and doctors. The government refuses to talk to us, but when faced with an indefinite strike at several hundred hospitals on Monday, it will be forced to put out the fire again," said Krzysztof Bukiel, the leader of the doctors' union. Meanwhile, Andrzej Sosnierz, head of the National Healthcare Fund, yesterday reiterated that funding pay increases from increased health insurance contributions - the only possibility - was a very bad idea. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 5) R.M.