Staff from 77 public hospitals across Buenos Aires province, belonging to workers union CICOP, went on strike for two hours today demanding improved security at health centres, following a violent incident at Fiorito Hospital on Sunday.
Hospital workers participating in the strike said that “due to the violence that occurred on Sunday at Fiorito Hospital in Avellaneda, the CICOP has decided to protest in order to demonstrate its preoccupation.”
The strike was being carried out for two hours, between 10am and 12pm, in 77 hospitals across Buenos Aires province, coinciding with a press conference held at Fiorito Hospital at 10am.
María Sosa, the CICOP leader said, “This is not the first time this has happened in a public hospital,” lamenting that measures were only taken only after the violence had occurred. “We demand security.”
On Sunday, doctors at the Fiorito Hospital, located in Avellaneda, Greater Buenos Aires, pleaded for help after claiming they were being attacked by a group of people related to two patients, recently deceased in traffic incidents.
According to the doctors, stones were thrown at their cars, they received death threats, and firearms were brandished, leading them to be held hostage for four hours in a hospital room.
Sosa said the Buenos Aires provincial Health Minister Alejandro Collia had minimized the incident and claimed there weren’t firearms. However, the union head insisted that “this was not invented by us: the people who were held hostage in the hospital had announced to the media that this had happened.”
The union reported similiar incidents had occurred in the Melchor Romero, de Moreno and Evita de Lanús hospitals and that incidents have been regularly reported in many other hospitals throughout the province.
buenosairesherald.com