Doctors and nurses strike: here’s how and why they stop on Tuesday 5 December

Shortage of staff, failure to hire, cuts in beds, salaries below the European average. These are just part of the reasons for the strike of doctors and nurses which will stop on Tuesday 5 December. The protest is also against the announced reduction in pensions for workers in the sector. Only essential public services such as emergency and first aid will be guaranteed: booked and scheduled activities will not be guaranteed.

For the national strike of doctors, healthcare managers, nurses, midwives and other healthcare professions, the main demonstration is in Rome, in Piazza SS Apostoli. At 11.30 the sit-in protest against the economic maneuver and in defense of the National Health Service organized by the trade unions begins Anaao Assomed, Cimo-Fesmed and Nursing up. The white coats have decided to fold their arms against the Meloni government’s maneuver which imposed cuts to healthcare.

Nurses

According to data from the National Federation of Nursing Professions Orders 127 thousand retirements are expected among nurses by 2033, 6 thousand will leave by the end of the year alone. Only some of them will be replaced. Over 18 thousand people would be missing in the next few years, counting the graduates leaving in recent years. Added to this is the problem of transfers. Every year, between 3,000 and 3,500 nurses go abroad either with a permanent transfer or as a cross-border worker with Switzerland.

The Nursing Up union makes even worse calculations: «175 thousand nurses are needed based on the average of European countries. If we then refer to those who join the EU, and in our opinion this is what should be done, there are as many as 220 thousand missing. 40 thousand nurses are needed just to guarantee the Pnrr. For about six months we have been trying to find doctors from India and Argentina, for example, but we know that many arrive without knowing the language and therefore the quality of care suffers.”

Doctors

Pierino Di Silverio, secretary of Anaao Assomed, Guido Quici, president of Cimo-Fesmed, and Antonio De Palma, president of Nursing up, we explain: «After yet another economic maneuver that ignores the needs of health professionals, calls into question their acquired rights and forgets the needs of public health, the time has come to strike. See you in the square to loudly express all our anger and disappointment.”

With the latest PNRR plan, the number of intensive care beds to be created by June 2026 is reduced. It goes from 7700 to 5992 places. The share of patients who will have to be assisted with telemedicine is rising: from 200 thousand to 300 thousand.

«Not only are community homes and hospitals being reduced, without guaranteeing other sources of financing, but the beds for intensive and sub-intensive care are also being cut, which represent a fundamental piece for the new anti-pandemic plan. One more reason to be alongside doctors, nurses and other public health professionals who are preparing to strike on 5 December”, says Marina Sereni, head of Health and Healthcare in the national secretariat of the Democratic Party.