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Catalan doctors call two-day strike over cuts

Region's hospitals and outpatient centers to be affected; medics say they have been left with no choice

Following months of open warfare between the Catalan regional government and healthcare workers over planned cutbacks, doctors in the region on Monday called a mass strike at hospitals and outpatient departments for November 15 and 16.

"There are red lines in healthcare that you cannot cross," said a spokesman for the Doctors' Union, which represents the majority of the 16,500 doctors in the public sector. The strike will be called off if the regional administration promises there will be no further cuts in 2012. Union leaders said they will negotiate "night and day" to that end.

"We are the last people who want a strike but they are leaving us with little choice," said the union's president, Albert Tomàs, who added that further cutbacks would leave the system "on the point of going under."

More information
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Public healthcare cuts put Catalan government in a sick position
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