Lima, August 5 (RHC-teleSUR)-- Nurses from Peru's Ministry of Health announced they will go an indefinite strike starting Monday, August 7th. The health care professionals will join doctors who have been striking for three weeks to demand higher wages and more investment in infrastructure.
According to reports, more than 20,000 health workers will suspend work indefinitely, providing only critical and emergency health care services.
Zoila Cotrina, a representative of the Federation of Nurses of the Ministry of Health of Peru, told reporters that around 40 percent of nurses are sub-contracted and have no benefits.
The nurses are demanding that the Ministry of Health address their work demands and implement an action plan to respond to Peru's current medical crisis. The health workers also say they lack the necessary resources to provide adequate medical services.
The president of the National Federation of Doctors described the public health situation under Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski as "disastrous."
"The fundamental reason behind this strike is in favor of our patients" Danilo Salazar, president of the National Federation of Doctors on the Ministry of Health told teleSUR in July.
In July, a group of doctors from the Association of Physicians also launched a hunger strike in protest of the deteriorating conditions. The association announced it will extend the hunger strike to other regions of the country including the hospitals in Chiclayo located in the northwest Peru’s Lambayeque region.
The medical workers have also demanded the resignation of Health Minister Patricia Garcia, who is accused of avoiding dialogue.
In 2016, protesters demanding better wages complained the state transferred $75 million to private clinics to satisfy the necessities of the public sector, calling the measure a disguised privatization of the public health system.
