The National Health Council of Bolivia (Conasa) confirmed this Sunday that it will extend the national strike for 15 more days, starting this Monday, against the Health Emergency Law promulgated by the government.
In a press conference, Conasa said that they made the decision due to the lack of response from the authorities to discuss the questions of the sector to the standard.
For medical professionals, the Health Emergency Law is unconstitutional and they propose its repeal because they consider that it violates their right to protest.
The Sanitary Emergency Law 1359 establishes in its article 24 that “during the validity of the sanitary emergency, the attention of the health services, drinking water, sewage, electricity, home gas, telecommunications and mobile and fixed telephony may not be suspended, as well as Internet services ”.
They also question the law because they consider that it promotes the hiring of foreign personnel, a situation that, they say, deprives professionals in the sector of sources of work.
In its article 28, the law establishes that the Ministry of Health “may shorten deadlines and simplify requirements and procedures for hiring professional and technical health personnel, graduates and / or medical students and retired doctors, being empowered to hire medical professionals that they had completed their studies in Bolivia or abroad, as long as there is no availability of human resources in the country and otherwise there is a predisposition of Bolivian professionals to provide services to the State ”.
For the government, the purpose of the Health Emergency Law is to establish measures to protect the life, health, integrity and well-being of the population in the event of a health emergency.
This Sunday, Bolivian President Luis Arce referred to the issue in a ceremony held in Sucre: “Let’s stop strikes, to vaccinate the population that needs it,” he said, referring to the strike that completed its fifteenth day.
In this context, the doctors ratified the strike, but expressed their commitment to support and reinforce the mass vaccination campaign against covid-19, and guarantee patient care and the operation of emergency services throughout the country.