89 OPERATIONS PUT ON HOLD

PALMA
BALEARIC doctors continued their rolling strike yesterday and, although IB-Salut Balearic Health Service chiefs and the Doctors' Union could not agree on how many doctors backed the strike on its second consecutive day, 89 patients had their operations postponed as a result of the industrial action.

A third of appointments with specialists were also rescheduled while the new hospital in Inca was unable to carry out any of the 14 operations due to have taken place yesterday. All of the anethetists were out on strike.

The director general of the Balearic health service, Josep Pomar, claimed yesterday that of the 2'314 doctors due to have been on duty yesterday, only 506 joined the strike action. “Considering all hospitals are having to provide minimum services, participation in the strike was about 25 percent, the same as Monday,” he said. However, the Doctors' Union maintained last night that participation in the strike was as high as 45 percent.

Two hundred doctors and public health sector staff picketed the headquarters of the health service in Plaza de España yesterday. Flanked by members of the National Police, they repeated their calls for improved pay conditions and tfor the Balearic Health Minister Vicenç Thomas to resign. Yesterday evening Thomas slammed demands by the Sindicato Medico Libre union for a five million euro pay rise as “unrealistic.” Thomas said the most sensible decision the doctors could take is to call off their protest and return to the negotiating table. There were rumours of a deal being brokered last night but the SML union repeated its claims that five million euros will be enough to end the protest which has provoked a large number of complaints from patients over the past two days.

IB-Salut sources said that all of the complaints will be dealt with individually and denied that any serious or urgent operations are under threat of being postponed by industrial action.