Health professionals in Italy strike over government’s proposed pension cuts
85% of medical staff opted not to show up for work, say trade unions
Italian doctors and nurses gather at Piazza Santi Apostoli during nationwide 24-hour strike protesting the government's cuts in health services in the 2024 budget bill on December 05, 2023, in Rome, Italy.
ATHENS
Health professionals in Italy staged a 24-hour nationwide strike on Tuesday over the government’s proposed pension cuts and other measures affecting health care, local media reported.
Some 85% of medical staff abstained from work and consequently up to 1.5 million medical appointments may have been missed as a result, said the state-run ANSA news agency, citing trade unions.
"We are talking about a cut in the pension allowance of at least 50,000 people, amounting to up to €26,347 ($28,446) per year for life," the unions said last month of measures in the 2024 budget bill currently before parliament.
"If, with this budget, the government intends to push doctors further away from the national health service, we will gladly lend them a hand," the heads of two trade unions warned in a joint statement.
"And when patients who go to the hospital find even fewer professionals to treat them, they will know who to blame," they added.
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