By: G. B.
Apparently, there are no signs indicating a light at the end of the tunnel in the doctors’ strike. Both sides – the government and the Fides union – are each on their own side. But this is not just about salaries; it is about regulating conditions in healthcare because doctors are excessively burdened, the quality of services is declining, and waiting times are increasing.
They are now intensifying the strike in some healthcare centres. In some places, electronic communication is limited, and some family medicine practices are only accepting urgent cases for half of their working hours. In other places, work is proceeding without major peculiarities despite the strike.
What raises the most concern is the media’s treatment of doctors. While mainstream media supported their demands during the previous government, it is now different. The fact that they stood against Golob’s government triggered media attacks on them and exacerbated the division between doctors and the public. The Association of Patient Organisations of Slovenia is receiving an increasing number of complaints, requests, and responses from patients about the difficulties they are facing during the doctor’s strike, demanding the public disclosure of instructions to striking doctors. The association warns of the “unethical abuse of patients in the struggle for money” and the authorities’ inaction regarding doctors’ shifts from public to private healthcare. Patients are reporting that they cannot obtain doctors’ certificates in healthcare centres for the payment of sick leave benefits, and thus, they cannot assert this right with the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (ZZZS) and employers. This directly endangers the livelihoods of many patients and their families, according to the association’s press release. They highlight the increasing anarchy and chaos in the healthcare system as a consequence of the strike. As if to say that there are no instructions and guidelines on how to behave during the strike. “Patients are also sending messages to the association about severe pain conditions and fevers due to flu, COVID-19, and respiratory diseases. Doctors or nurses are only giving them recommendations over the phone, such as taking Lekadol or something similar,” the association cautions. “This directly affects the survival chances of these patients”.
In other words, the doctors’ strike is apparently becoming life-threatening. The responsibility seems to lie with the doctors and not the government. The Patient Association also believes that conducting the doctors’ strike in its current form constitutes an unethical exploitation of patients in the fight against the government, solely for increasing salaries based on classification into higher pay grades, regardless of the scope and quality of the work performed by individual doctors and healthcare providers. They note that Fides has not proposed or offered any measures to improve the efficiency of the work of doctors and healthcare providers, only a salary increase for doctors, not for nurses and other healthcare staff.
However, the main motives for such positions can be explained by the recently published cover of Mladina, which almost treats doctors as class enemies. Young doctors pointed this out on the x network:
Well, the criticism of doctors with “amphibians” has been going on for some time, but it is worth remembering that there are quite a few obvious cases of “amphibians” among journalists as well. For example, at RTV Slovenia, where some of those who are “f***ing more” also earn extra money with private businesses, such as organising various events, etc. One such example is Igor E. Bergant.
In this context, it is worth recalling another aspect of the widespread stereotypical attacks against doctors, namely from the ranks of so-called anti-vaxxers, who, during the COVID-19 epidemic, portrayed doctors as some kind of modern-day Mengeles, i.e., experimenters on humans. Well, except for those few anonymous doctors who allegedly expressed opposition to vaccination and presented themselves as “independent doctors” on a certain website…