DR Update 6: Strike 3, Doctor Out?

Dominican love for the baseball is pervasive, and this adoration appears to have spread to the workplace. The national fasciantion with strike outs is only matched by a country-wide tendency to engage in labor strikes.

Strikes, or huelgas, are dime a dozen (doce por peso?) here. Last week, there was some type of strike (so non-newsworthy that I couldn't find an article on it) that blocked transportation between the capital and Baní. The result was that the Baní hospital's HIV doctor literally could not get to work. And since he's the only physician with expertise on antiretrovirals, no patients received HIV-related services that day.

The latest newsoworthy strike involves health care professionals. Doctors and nurses are striking for 72 hours across the country, apparently. The government is assuring Dominicans that health care will not change as a result of this labor action. However, I cannot imagine how a significant decrease in hospital staff will not harm patient care. This is an area in which a doctor's elevation of the patient's interests above his/her own may limit what types of protest are ethical. It will be interesting to see what comes of this latest huelga.