Nurses protest in Warsaw
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
05.10.2012 11:35
Several thousand nurses and midwives have taken to the streets of Warsaw in protest against the “privatisation and commercialisation” of Poland's health services.
Delegation of nurses from Lubin, southern Poland, demonstrate in Warsaw; photo - PAP/Pawel Supernak
The demonstrators are marching from the centre of the city, south to the Prime Minister's Office to deliver a petition against the government's plans for the health sector in Poland.
Representatives of the National Union of Nurses trade met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday as today he is in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Protests in other European capitals are expected as part of a "European resistance movement against the destruction of the public health sector," says the trade union.
According to the European Health Consumer Index (EHCI) the condition of Polish hospitals is deteriorating, with Poland falling from 26th to the 27th place among 34 European health systems.
The centre-right government has been enacting a private-public-partnership scheme (PPP) in the health care sector with strategic investors being found for some hospitals to improve their liquidity.
Health workers say the plans threaten not only jobs but health care quality.
Today's protest also commemorates a 'white town' protest by nurses in 2007, where tens were erected opposition the Prime Minister's Officers in demonstration against government health policy.
Nurses say they do not have permission from city authorities to repeat the protest this time. (pg)