IPS Nurses and Health Workers Call Protest for Saturday

Nurses and other health workers at Paraguay's Social Security Institute, IPS, are being called to protest outside Ingavi Hospital on Saturday evening.

The National Union of IPS Nursing and Health Workers, Sinadips, said the gathering would continue its struggle against what it describes as abandonment by IPS authorities. The assembly is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sept. 5 at the hospital's entrance plaza.

The union says patient services have become completely overwhelmed. It also denounced what it called an administrative contradiction, arguing that “hundreds of bosses do nothing and devote themselves to pursuing those who work,” apart from a few supervisors, coordinators and direct managers.

Sinadips said nurses are resigning in large numbers because of deplorable working conditions. It is demanding the stabilization of temporary jobs and salary adjustments.

The union said 11,000 workers remain contracted, but after three years of waiting, authorities opened a stabilization competition for only 1,000 positions. Of those, just 215 posts are assigned to 4,300 contracted nurses. Around 15,000 health workers, it added, have gone 15 years without any adjustment to their pay. The union is calling on all staff to join the protest and demand decent working conditions and respect for labor rights.

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Hundreds of bosses do nothing and devote themselves to pursuing those who work.