On Friday night, while news of layoffs in various state agencies circulated, dozens of professionals and workers at the Posadas Hospital learned that they were laid off.
ATTENTION The layoffs at Hospital Posadas not only leave prestigious professionals on the street, but the care of sensitive areas is in crisis. It is not only about defending jobs but also the public health of the people, at the moment of greatest social crisis.
— 🔴 ᴠɪʀɢɪɴɪᴀ ɢᴏ 🔴 (@mavirginiagomez) June 29, 2024
This is what Myriam Bregman denounced on her social networks:
The dismissals at Posadas Hospital are criminal. Doctors of pulmonology, molecular biology, oncology, kinesiology, endocrinology, child physiatry, pediatric nurses, among other specialties, OUT! In fact, it involves the closure of complex areas 👇
— Myriam Bregman (@myriambregman) June 29, 2024
Below we reproduce the letter from Luis Sucher (PTS), a Cicop delegate who was illegally dismissed, describing what happened:
“I am Luis Sucher, I have been employed at Posadas Hospital for 25 years, currently in the office care area, I am there every day caring for patients. On Friday I received a notification that the authorities had decided not to renew my contract. In addition to this, I am a Cicop delegate, which makes everything even more illegal and persecutory.
My dismissal is the same as that of many colleagues, who I see every day, putting their knowledge and efforts at the service of maintaining quality care. Dozens of excellent professionals have been dismissed, in an attitude that puts care at risk, leaving services on the verge of collapse. It is practically a dismantling of specific areas: Physical Therapy, Emergencies, Pulmonology, Clinical Medicine, Kinesiology, Nursing, Molecular Biology applied to cancer treatment, Administration, Radiology, Hemotherapy, all excellent professionals who will not be able to continue serving the population. In my case, I feel very angry with the dismissal of my endocrinologist, who detected thyroid cancer in me and over these years has treated me in an excellent way from a human and professional point of view. I feel that with these dismissals, they are stealing the same right from hundreds and hundreds of patients, who are under treatment and want to face their illnesses, in this case, thyroid cancer. This scheme can be applied to every fired professional and their patients. It is not an attack on this or that worker, but rather an attack on an essential service such as public health. Those of us who were on the front line of the pandemic, that public health that the government does not care about and attacks and defunds, while enabling ever-increasing private sector business. This attack is replicated in multiple sectors of the state, and is based on the enormous job insecurity. We are all hired workers, a neoliberal legacy that no government questioned, which was added to prioritizing the payment of fraudulent debts, drowning the budget for health. That is why we have to defend public and quality health, fight for my reinstatement and that of the more than 90 health workers who were fired.
There are dozens of us who have been laid off at the Posadas Hospital. The only health care this government cares about is the one that makes a profit! They are leaving thousands of patients without their doctors or access to health care. We must stop them! Health is a right, not a business. pic.twitter.com/rprboaropI
— Luis Sucher (@luis_sucher) June 29, 2024
The government has been widening the gap in favor of big businessmen and increasing poverty and destitution. Let those at the top adjust: not even a dismissal! But it is a fight that we cannot fight alone, we need the support of our patients and other workers, to defend the hospital together. How we knew how to build the relationship with our emblematic patient who was the dear Nora Cortiñas, that she was accompanying us in every measure of struggle and that today she would surely be making herself available. We also need to unite with all the solidarity sectors that are sending us their hugs, their support, their willingness. This does not fall from the sky, for years we have strengthened ties with our community and its demands, its fights, in defense of health, but also education, transportation, housing and many more demands. Unity and coordination was already a weapon that allowed us to return when we were fired during the Macri government. Retaking the best of our tradition is a guarantee that we are going to fight it. We don’t know any other way.
We also need unions, a tool for workers to fight, that is why we demand that ATE and UPCN hold common assemblies of members and non-members, to define how to confront this common attack. At Cicop we are preparing a first assembly for Monday at 12 noon to define all the steps to follow.
Our hospital has a long tradition of struggle and organization in the 1970s, in defense of health and with active participation in the management of the hospital. With their struggle they managed to establish a workers’ board elected by direct vote. Our hospital went out into the streets a thousand times defending public health and all the sectors that came out to fight for it. We are proud of that tradition. Can anyone in their right mind imagine that they can banish that tradition? I know that many of you cannot, that is why I call on you to fight together not only to return, but for quality public health as our patients deserve, who often find themselves with limits placed on them by the spokesmen of the businessmen like this government, which with this new act continues to demonstrate its hatred towards the workers and popular sectors.
The current government intends to turn the people’s health into a business. But the health of the great majority of workers is a human right that we cannot allow to be taken away from us. Reinstatement of all those who were fired! Let’s defend public, free and quality health care!
Lauga Bogado of the Board of Directors of Cicop Hospital Posadas:
Not only are they firing colleagues with enormous experience in their field, but they are also leaving millions without a basic right such as health in this time of brutal adjustment. On Monday, in an assembly, the workers will discuss what measures to take. We ask for all your solidarity. https://t.co/OZln0gbp0t
— Laura Bogado (@LauraLeia19) June 29, 2024
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
