The nurses and medical staff in Bulgaria have been struggling for over a year for a higher salary (one that is enough to live on!), better working conditions, more staff - for a health system that serves the people! For more than a year now, they have been struggling in an organized way against the catastrophic conditions in the health system, against the imperialist plundering and sell-out of their country. Now, in the wake of the Corona pandemic, both the medical staff and the broad masses of the people of Bulgaria are being hit with full force!
A nurse reports that there is no protective equipment or staff, the emergency centers are like ruins. There is a lack of specialists, especially in the provinces. The staff were deprived of extensive labour rights, such as the right to timely payment, the right to leave the workplace after work and, finally, the right to elementary protection. Colleagues, according to the nurses who work in the wards with the infected patients, are 12 hours or even longer in protective clothing. For them there is no food, water or even a trip to the toilet during this time - because there is a massive lack of protective clothing!
Not only that, it is an unspoken fact that no COVID19 tests are performed on medical staff. Samples should be taken, but without testing the result is always negative. A positive test would mean quarantine of the employees and then there would be no one left to work.
Hardly any of the demands made by the medical staff last year, for which numerous demonstrations and actions were carried out, were fulfilled - now the already catastrophic health system is in the middle of a train break!
Once again the struggling nurses in Bulgaria emphasize that their struggle is justified and they are not willing to risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones for miserable pay and terrible conditions!
For a health system in the service of the people!
Death to imperialism!
