Health workers to strike on Thursday
Doctors and nurses plan to strike for higher wage starting July 5, as announced by Head of the Mongolian Health Workers’ Trade Union B.Myagmar...
Doctors and nurses plan to strike for higher wage starting July 5, as announced by Head of the Mongolian Health Workers’ Trade Union B.Myagmar.
The strike will be held nationwide, but B.Myagmar notified that doctors and nurses will only provide healthcare services to urgent patients and during life threatening situations.
“The government didn’t accept our demands. Therefore, we are declaring a strike starting 8:30 a.m. on July 5 throughout the nation. During the strike, urgent medical assistance and services will be provided. But not other services. To date, over 100 health organizations have expressed to join the strike. Our strike will continue for an indefinite period of time. We will protest until our demands are met,” B.Myagmar stated.
Health workers have been demanding the Ministry of Health and Cabinet to raise their wages and increase the number of nurses at hospitals since spring. Since the health minister and Cabinet members haven’t given a “favorable” response, doctors, nurses and other health workers decided to go on strike again.
Currently, there are over 40,000 health workers in Mongolia, out of which 12,000 are nurses and nursing experts specialized in 26 fields. Reportedly, 97 percent of nurses are female and receive an average of 400,000 MNT to 500,000 MNT per month. Nurses told Minister of Health D.Sarangerel that their wages should be raised by at least seven to 49 percent during a meeting held earlier this year. Increasing wages of all nurses is estimated to require additional 73 billion MNT.