A bleeding pregnant woman on Wednesday died at the gates of Haiti’s largest public hospital after failing to get help amid a weeks-old strike by resident doctors, nurses and other staff.
Hundreds of people gathered around the woman just outside the General Hospital compound in Port-au-Prince’s crowded downtown. They covered her body in a blanket and carried it to a nearby radio station in an impromptu protest, chanting: “Medicine needs to work!”
“This woman came here to get help, but couldn’t find any doctors. That’s not right,” computer technician Jean Michel Tius said as he watched the crowd march away with the corpse.
Public hospitals primarily serve Haiti’s poor and have been crippled by the strike. Doctors, nurses and maintenance staff have walked off the job to protest a chronic dearth of even the most basic medical supplies, dismal pay and unsafe working conditions.
People needing medical help are forced to seek care at relatively expensive private hospitals or overcrowded free clinics run by international organizations.
Young resident doctors at the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, a teaching hospital, gathered privately in an office during the protest before holding a news conference.
Joseph Herold, a third-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology, said he was deeply saddened by news of the pregnant woman’s death, but he put the blame on the Haitian Ministry of Health.
“The state doesn’t give us anything to care for the patients,” he said, adding that even rubber gloves are scarce.
Resident physicians at the teaching hospital earn a basic salary of just US$120 a month, Herold said.
He said pay has not increased for over 20 years, causing a steady stream of doctors to abandon the public hospital system or seek opportunities abroad.
In a statement, the health ministry’s mediators said the resident doctors are demanding nearly US$1,300 a month. They said they are trying to satisfy demands made by the resident doctors, but they are powerless to address the salary complaints until the next fiscal year begins in October.
The walkout at the General Hospital complex started when a resident doctor was apparently punched by an administrator, but it has since broadened to demand better working conditions and pay. Staffers at nine other public hospitals are protesting in solidarity.
After Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, a new and improved General Hospital was supposed to be built with money from international donors, but more than six years later it is still not completed.
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears. The proposals are “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement on Monday in response to queries from Bloomberg. The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB
RSS