Health sector workers have gone on strike in Greece to protest against government plans to lay off thousands of employees,Press TVreports.The health employees took to the streets of the capital, Athens, on Wednesday, to protest plans to dismiss some 2,500 health sector personnel.
The national health systems budget has already been cut [by] 40 percent in the last three years. We are in desperate need of more doctors, nursing stuff, and medical technicians, said Georgios Floudas, with the University Hospital of Ioannia.
The strike comes ahead of radical reforms to the countrys public health services, scheduled to be completed by March 2014.
Kostas Petropoulos, the president of Sparta Hospital Employees, said, These layoffs concern everyone, not just health workers. These 2,500 health employees dismissed now will triple this summer. This government is determined to remove 25,000 state employees by the end of this year and the unemployment is to rise beyond control.
When the Greek government said it intends to turn at least five public hospitals in Athens into health centers that will focus on chronic illnesses earlier this month in order to cut spending, hospital staff members were outraged.
In order to control its high debt to the international troika - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the European Commission (EC) - the Greek government has imposed tough austerity measures.
Greece has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis and is experiencing its sixth year of recession. Harsh austerity measures have left tens of thousands of people without jobs.
By the end of 2013, some 25,000 civil servants must be redeployed and an additional 4,000 fired in order for the country to receive access to further payout of approximately 8.1 billion euros ($10.4 billion) in bailout rescue loans.
By Press TV
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