An internal dispute has the Hospital San Vicente de Paúl de Remedios in trouble, in Northeast Antioquia. Since last Thursday, March 31, its employees declared themselves in permanent assembly. Although essential services such as emergencies and hospitalization continue to be provided, outpatient care and basic services have ceased.
The breaking point between the hospital employees and the directives is the intention that they have shown to outsource some of the staff. Vanesa Bermúdez, a general practitioner at the hospital and spokesperson for the Anthoc union, explains that, through outsourcing, employees will be reduced salary and their working hours will be increased.
“We are not going to allow missionary personnel, who would be around 40 people, be outsourced. That is why we are in cease of activities. Since we started the assembly, six people have been laid offwhich we consider a retaliation by the hospital”, explains Bermúdez.
EL COLOMBIANO tried to communicate with the hospital management to contrast this information and so that they could offer their version. However, there was no response until the publication of this article. However, this medium remains open to know its version.
The spokeswoman Bermúdez argues that the general assembly, that is, the protests and the cessation of some activities, it will only be lifted when the six people are reinstated which, he says, were fired in retaliation. However, there are also other requests such as salary leveling, since general practitioners from neighboring municipalities, in similar conditions, can earn up to one million pesos more.
Another who has denounced and documented the protest is Juan Camilo Saldarriaga, councilman of Remedios. Through social networks it has broadcast the sit-ins made by the staff. “The situation is very serious,” says the councilor.
The hospital management has stressed that they are up to date with the payments to the workers, which they confirm. However, the assembly and the cessation of activities will last, says Bermúdez, until the six dismissed workers are reinstated.