Thousands of nurses out of work. This is one of the reasons for the planned strike

This year, 5,100 female and male graduates have left nursing schools. Only 1,100 of them were employed in hospitals – this is the data of the nursing unions. Meanwhile, the manpower to work on the beds of patients – especially in times of epidemics – is urgently lacking. Nurses are announcing a general strike if their working conditions do not improve and wages do not increase.

Nurses are expected to enter into collective disputes with employers within two weeks. This is the first stage of a protest against working conditions during the pandemic and low wages. If the nurses’ demands are unsuccessful, a general strike is possible early next year. Nurses do not rule out that they will leave patients’ beds then.

Meanwhile, according to the RMF FM reporter Paweł Balinowski, thousands of people with the right to practice employment did not find. Some of the nurses may have left, some may have changed their minds, but for most – despite the enormous amount of work – there is no place in hospitals. Many directors blocked their jobs due to bad financial situation – we heard from Krystyna Ptok, head of nursing unions. Ptok explains that older nurses retire but no new ones are hired to replace them.

In their place, jobs were not replenished. Graduates who applied were informed that they would not be employed – she said.

Although we are talking about hospitals that do not accept new nurses, the problem is as always wider – the government does not give enough money to hire staff, adds our interlocutor. There are several reasons, and the result is serious: 4,000 people who could unburden the system cannot find a job.

At the same time, the Supreme Medical Council and nursing unions are protesting against the new regulations on employing medical personnel from abroad during the coronavirus pandemic. It is about the provisions concerning the conditional admission to work of doctors and nurses, even without knowledge of the Polish language.

This is a threat to the health and life of patients, writes the Supreme Medical Council in its statement and adds that such moves are unjustified even during a pandemic.

The nurses are also indignant. We are helping people without knowledge of Polish – Krystyna Ptok is surprised.

Staff shortages are one of the reasons why nurses want to go on strike. Longina Kaczmarska, vice-president of the Polish Association of Nurses and Midwives, spoke about it in the Afternoon conversation at RMF FM.

There are 2 nurses out of 80 patients, we are trying to take what we already have, employment standards are abolished. And as she added, the problem of the shortage of nursing staff is not the problem of recent days – explained the vice-president of OZZPiP.

Kaczmarska did not want to reveal the details of the general strike planned by the nurses, but admitted that she hoped it would start as soon as possible. We will be moving through the collective dispute stage at an accelerated pace. And I hope that the employers will make it easier for us to get enough of a general strike as soon as possible – she said.

Kaczmarska told us that all forms of strike were taken into account: Perhaps there will be a departure from beds, perhaps a hunger strike, perhaps the right to practice the profession will be placed by those professions that are granted the right to practice the profession by local governments.

A general strike would begin in 1-1.5 months. Nurses are expected to enter into collective disputes with employers within two weeks.