No more waiting: Doctors in FBiH go on strike, asking patients for understanding

Given the constant postponement of the start of negotiations with the Union of Professional Unions of Doctors of Medicine and Dentistry of FBiH, the Union made a decision at an emergency meeting of the Steering Committee to initiate activities regarding the commencement of a general strike of doctors of medicine and dentistry in the FBiH, it was announced, reports Patria.

As stated by the Union, they have been waiting for several months for numerous administrative procedures imposed by the Federal Ministry of Health to be completed, which involved concrete decisions from the Federal Government, then competent ministries, as well as decisions from cantonal governments and competent cantonal ministries.

The Government of the Federation of BiH, at its session held on December 23, 2016, adopted the Decision on giving consent to the Protocol on conducting negotiations for the conclusion of the Collective Agreement on the rights and obligations of employers and employees-doctors of medicine and dentistry in the healthcare sector in the territory of the Federation of BiH and authorized the Federal Minister of Health, Vjekoslav Mandić, to sign it on behalf of the FBiH Government.

- The Federal Government authorized and tasked the Federal Ministry of Health to start negotiations with us, but this has not happened, and we are still waiting for an invitation. In the meantime, we have sent several letters to the cabinet of the federal prime minister, requesting that negotiations regarding the collective agreement start as soon as possible, as well as several written correspondences with the Federal Ministry of Health.

In the past period, the leadership of our Union has tried and is trying to act constructively, in order to find a solution to the current situation regarding the (non)commencement of negotiations.

This involved informing and warning responsible people in decision-making positions to finally engage in negotiations with us in order to start resolving the accumulated problems in healthcare, one of the most pressing being the position of doctors and patients.

Doctors in FBiH will never agree to the undermining of doctors' dignity, which is foreseen by the new collective agreement signed between the Union of Employees in Healthcare and the Federal Ministry of Health in 2016.

That agreement, in addition to undermining the dignity and prestige of doctors, could also lead to a deterioration in the quality of the entire healthcare system in FBiH - the Union states.

Namely, the non-signing of a collective agreement with doctors, or the "extension" of a previously signed collective agreement to include doctors, will lead to dissatisfaction and an even more massive departure of doctors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the departure of eminent specialists from the public healthcare sector to the private sector, thereby further weakening the already devastated public healthcare sector.

What can we expect then? Who will treat, and for whom will healthcare exist?

We want to inform the citizens that we have tried in every possible way to avoid the situation of organizing a general strike and have exhausted almost all possibilities, and we ask for your understanding if it comes to that.

We hereby ask for your support so that we can jointly exert additional pressure on those who make decisions on this matter (in this case, the Federal Ministry of Health) in order to avoid what we consider unnecessary harassment of both patients and us doctors.

The current situation in healthcare and in society is deeply unjust towards doctors, but also towards all healthcare workers, and even more unjust towards patients, and we want to change that, to the satisfaction of both doctors and patients.

Once again, we call on the citizens of FBiH for understanding and patience. What we are doing is for the benefit of all of us.