On Monday, Ecuador’s town of Quito came to a standstill when workers employed in the healthcare sector took to the streets and blocked the major traffic ways in and out of the city. Their actions are a response to the continuing dismissals of workers in healthcare and the incapability of the government to provide even the most basic necessities for the people of the country.
The problem is not only, that due to the lay offs of workers in the various fields of healthcare (including doctors and administrative staff) many people are facing unemployment and an immediate perspective of hardships, but it is furthermore a cutting down of social services that in the current state already are completely insufficient to provide healthcare for the vast majority of Ecuadorians. Very expressive of this situation is the fact, that it sometimes not only takes months of waiting to receive an appointment at a doctor, but that one then - no matter the sickness, be it a light flu or something more serious – only gets a prescription for paracetamol as there is a shortage of medicine.
That amidst this kind of situation medical staff is laid off signals how rotten the healthcare system is. While the government subsidizes, for example, the gas for certain private providers of transportation, so that their profit margin will be greater, or forgives the debt of the large banks and businesses, it does very little to work towards having a healthcare system properly supplied and staffed in order to be able to provide for those who are in need of it. Against this whole situation, including the rotten government so very openly serving the interests of the imperialists rather then the people of Ecuador, the workers of healthcare with their determent action on the 5th of August took position.
