medicine

Doctor strikes in Panama a chronic problem

The current doctors strike has many antecedents in Panama´s recent history. Doctors have taken to the streets in 1978, 1979, and 1995.

JORGE FERNÁNDEZ/LA PRENSA

In the street:Doctors strike on Avenida Balboa, demanding an increase in wages from the government. They are also opposing the privatization of the health system.952377

"Those were days of great anguish," recalls Gaspar García de Paredes, describing the two-week medical strike in Panama in 1978. The doctors then, as now, were demanding a significant increase in wages and better working conditions.

García de Paredes was one of the leaders of the 1978 strike, which ocurred during the dictatorship of General Omar Torrijos, father of the current President, Martín Torrijos. According to García de Paredes, it was hard to negotiate in those days. "The country was living under a dictator and rapprochement with the authorities was extremely difficult." That´s why the Comisión Médica Negociadora Nacional (Comenal) was established."

Eventually, García de Paredes and others were able to talk to a man known then as General Miguel Antonio Noriega, who appointed a negotiating committee composed of the former directorof the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS), and several influential ministers. The physicians negotiataed successfully for an increase in wages so that doctors earning $500 monthly at the time were paid $800.

Doctors participated in another strike in 1979, which lasted several weeks, said one of its leaders, Mauro Zuñiga. The strike was kindled by teachers who rejected an education reform program imposed by the government and who demanded higher wages. The doctors joined them in solidarity.

The country faced another strike by doctors in 1995. Zuñiga was again a fervent participant. "It was a very advanced strike, very controversial and very noticeable, and it lasted for only seven days because we were aware that a longer strike would be unpopular," he said. Thanks to the strikers, emergency rooms, surgery wards and caring for patients in crisis were improved. The doctors went on strike in 1995 to protest the creation of a separate institution that would control CSS funds.

More recently, doctors have been striking for a salary increase since Nov. 4 of this year. The strike has affected health care facilities and thousands of patients throughout the country.

Rosario Turner, the current health minister, said that last month the government began to assign dozens of doctors to handle critical cases, while President Martín Torrijos ordered officials to stop paying wages to non-working doctors.

Doctors have rebuffed the government´s latest proposal for a pay increase, and representatives from Comenal continue holding out for assurances from the government that it will not privatize healthcare services.