The clinicians went on a warning strike on Thursday. According to the union, 4,000 doctors from several federal states came to the central rally on Munich’s Marienplatz. Patients had to accept restrictions at municipal hospitals in the Free State and at individual Munich clinics of the Helios Group. In addition to Bavaria, the Marburger Bund trade union had also called for walkouts in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
Andreas Botzlar from the federal presidency of the Marburger Bund called on the employers to submit an offer that recognizes the work of the doctors. The situation in many houses is already so critical that emergency staffing has become the norm, said Botzlar. Employers would have it in their own hands to take the pressure off the boiler.
The association of municipal employers again criticized the strike as unnecessary muscle flexing at the expense of the patients. The Marburger Bund has no understanding of the financially tense situation in the hospitals, it said. According to the Marburger Bund, emergency treatment of the patients was ensured in the affected clinics. Emergency service agreements were offered to the clinics.
The Marburger Bund is demanding a salary increase of 2.5 percent from employers for around 55,000 doctors in municipal clinics nationwide. In addition, with effect from January 1, 2023, there should be a compensation for the price increases that have accumulated since the last fee increase in October 2021. On Tuesday last week, the doctors’ union called for a one-day warning strike in the northern federal states. Since the first two rounds of negotiations did not bring any result, negotiations are to be repeated on April 3rd and 4th.