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Marshal Kuchciński was born in Przemyśl, he is an honorary citizen of our city, and he treated the nurses so disrespectfully. He is afraid of us. We did not expect that this is what politics looks like – said starving nurses from the Provincial Hospital in Przemyśl yesterday. Now they have signed an agreement. We would like to remind you what Edyta Brzozowska, a TvoiLokony journalist, said just a few days ago.
- Nurses from Przemyśl from September 3 conducted a rotational fasting and absenteeism protest. On Tuesday, they signed an agreement with the director of the facility and the voivodeship marshal. They end their hunger strike and return to work, they are promised a PLN 600 raise, and then another one, depending on the hospital’s results
- The hospital in Przemyśl has always been an unwanted and underfunded facility. Within a dozen or so years, the Podkarpackie Marshal’s Office replaced over a dozen directors in the hospital. One of the nurses tells us: – Piotr Ciompa, the director of the hospital, organized his own information campaign and hung up posters with our earnings. We rubbed our eyes with amazement when we saw that our basic salary was 5 zlotys. This is bullshit. The director manipulates public opinion, he has turned the rest of the hospital staff against us
- We did not expect that this is what politics would look like that Marshal Kuchciński, who was born in Przemyśl and is an honorary citizen of our city, would treat the nurses so disrespectfully. He is afraid of us – they said.
- We have no lifting equipment for overweight patients. There is a crane, my friends do not use it because it is falling apart. Civilized hospitals have belts, automatic anti-bedsore mattresses that rotate patients. We do it ourselves. I am 32 years old and already have many changes in my spine
Why did the nurses protest? Here is what the journalist Edith Brzozowska told TvoiLokony a few days ago:
– We are furious – is nervous Mrs. Anna, a nurse at the Provincial Hospital of them. Padre Pio in Przemyśl. – That is why our 628 nurses and 12 nurses are protesting. We demand higher wages, more white staff and the purchase of specialized equipment for working with patients. We work in black in the ward, and the ID badges are covered with a plaque with the words “Protest. Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives ”.
Patients have broken veins
32-year-old Ms Anna says that white personnel work in extremely difficult conditions, and the hospital lacks specialized equipment.
– We do not have equipment for lifting patients, especially those who are overweight. There is one such special crane, but my friends do not use it because it is falling apart. Civilized hospitals have slides, belts, automatic anti-bedsore mattresses that turn the patients themselves. Meanwhile, we carry our sick, often obese, ourselves. I am only 32 years old, and I already have many changes in my spine.
The woman also mentions other shortcomings that make the work of nurses in the hospital in Przemyśl very difficult.
– We have the cheapest syringes and vents, therefore the lowest quality. And in the oncology department there are seriously ill patients: their veins are brittle, cracking, brittle. I often have to prick a sick person several times in order to put a cannula on him. The cheapest one does not have sufficient durability, so it causes phlebitis. It’s the same with drip roll kits: they’re hopeless.
They work and starve
The nurses’ protest in the Przemyśl hospital has been going on since September 3.
He is accompanied by a hunger strike: the first one lasted 19 days, and the next one began on Tuesday, October 2. On average, 12 to 20 people take part in them at the same time. Sister B. survived the hunger protest the longest, with 30 days without eating. Inna, W., does not take food for 23 days. Among the starving people was a nurse who had just been hired, and one who would be retiring in a few days.
– Hungry people are lying on mattresses in the hospital corridor, but they are filling their shifts – reports the nurse. – We try to entrust them with the lightest tasks possible, not overload them with work. We all wear black and no IDs. The starving ones have a badge with the words “I am starving – I am working”. They are on a liquid diet, they drink juices, coffee, tea, water, especially borscht or broth.
Unlucky hospital
Protesting nurses and nurses want raises. They consider it strange that the same provincial hospital, only in Rzeszów, less than 100 kilometers away, offers its employees much higher salaries than the Przemyśl hospital.
– Our facility is subordinate to the same Marshal as Rzeszów – analyzes Ewa Rygiel, president of the Nurses and Midwives Trade Union at the Provincial Hospital in Przemyśl. – But Przemyśl was always the unwanted and underfunded one. I have been working as a nurse for 32 years and I will not count all the directors that the Podkarpackie Marshal’s Office has mentioned to us. There were a dozen of them. The current director, Piotr Ciompa, also stated at the outset that he would be with us for no more than 3 years. He has a family in Warsaw, so it is known that she will not follow him to Przemyśl.
Employees believe that the director of Ciompa will not take any initiative in the matter of increases for staff, as he is indecisive.
– The director will do only as much as Marshal Władysław Ortyl will allow him – adds Rygiel. – And in our opinion, the director is responsible for the hospital and is our boss, not the Marshal’s Office.
Low wages
– We earn outrageously little – emphasizes Ms Anna. – We got all the increases in our hospital after strikes, protests, hunger strikes, and leaving bed. Each time we had to pull them out almost by force.
Nurses feel their low salaries the more disappointed that in the neighboring hospital in Rzeszów, white personnel earn much more. There, the gross salary is around PLN 4–5. – We have no idea where the difference comes from – the nurse is surprised. – My friend, who lives in Przemyśl just like me, has been commuting to Rzeszów for 7 years. It is not profitable for her to work on site. There, “on hand” has a minimum of 3. I, after 10 years of work, when I get 2100, that’s it.
– The director of our hospital organized his own information campaign. He put up posters with our earnings in the facility. We rubbed our eyes with astonishment when we saw that our basic salary is 5-6 thousand zlotys. This is bullshit. Piotr Ciompa manipulates public opinion, and in addition he has set the rest of the hospital staff against us, reports Ewa Rygiel.
Enter the Seym
Bartosz Arłukowicz, MP from the Civic Platform, invited nurses from Przemyśl to Warsaw for a session of the Parliamentary Health Committee.
The women organized themselves and traveled to the capital by coach on Thursday, October 4. They wanted to meet, inter alia, the Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski, as well as Director Ciompa and Marshal Ortyl, who were invited to the session of the parliamentary committee.
However, the delegation of nurses was not admitted to the Seym. There were scuffles, MP Arłukowicz convinced the Marshal’s Guard that he had the right to enter the building with his guests. He explained: “I want to enter the Sejm, I am an MP. Please let me in. “
However, the guards consistently blocked the entrance and did not let Arłukowicz and the nurses into the Sejm building, explaining that such an order was given by Marshal Marek Kuchciński. As a result, the repulsed and desperate MP from the Civic Platform, holding the hands of Przemyśl nurses, shouted: “Kuchciński, look, they want to crush me here!”
– The government and the Ministry of Health for a month pretended that there was no protest by starving nurses in Przemyśl – emphasizes Arłukowicz. – It was similar in the case of resident doctors, where the strike lasted many weeks and the minister of health pretended that nothing was happening. Starving nurses came to Warsaw to talk calmly with Minister Szumowski. The way in which Marshal Kuchciński treated them is scandalous. Problems cannot be solved if one side of the dispute barricades before the other. It was also impossible to reach an agreement earlier, because Marshal Ortyl mocked the starving people directly – adds the MP.
With words about “mockery” Bartosz Arłukowicz referred to the post of Marshal Władysław Otryl, who on September 30 on his Facebook profile posted a photo of empty mattresses in a hospital in Przemyśl, while starving nurses were starving on mattresses in a completely different part of the hospital.
The Marshal is afraid of us
Marshal Kuchciński decided to change the place of the meeting of the health committee. He justified his decision by the fact that numerous social organizations were interested in the deliberations. That is why he transferred the meeting to the Center for Social Dialogue Partnership.
– We did not expect that this is how politics looks like. That Mr. Marshal Kuchciński, who was born in Przemyśl and is an honorary citizen of our city, will treat us so disrespectfully, complains nurse Ewa Rygiel. – He’s afraid of us. And if a man is afraid of a woman, it’s not normal. Besides, we felt very uncomfortable when a cordon of policemen surrounded us in Warsaw and escorted us. We live in our own country and felt like criminals who need to be escorted.
Rygiel claims that the meeting with Minister Szumowski was received very positively by the nurses.
– We were heard by him. He is a kind man and we are grateful to him for being involved in our affairs. Marshal Ortyl should learn from him – claims Rygiel.
And Bartosz Arłukowicz adds – The most important thing is to talk and look for a compromise that each party will accept. That is why I invited nurses from Przemyśl to the health committee in order to create the possibility of a direct conversation with Minister Szumowski. Ultimately, this goal was achieved, the talks lasted several hours and there is hope that this protest will be finally concluded. It is a pity that the nurses had to go all the way to Warsaw so that the rulers would finally notice them.
The nurse is worse than the cashier
– Which of the postulates are most important to you? – I ask the nurses.
– They’re all important. Most of the protesters are ladies in the pre-retirement age. They will not enjoy this possible higher salary for a long time. It should also be remembered that in 5-7 years, 70 percent of the staff will leave the Przemyśl hospital because of their age. There are only 25 young nurses and nurses. – lists Rygiel – And there are no new ones on the horizon.
– It cannot be that we earn the same as the wardens – argues Ms Anna. – We respect their work very much, because without them we would not be able to cope. But I, after 5 years of studies with a specialization, expect a decent salary. Minister Szumowski himself was a bit surprised when the nurses showed their pay slips. You can see in black and white that we earn less than the ladies at the cash register in Lidl or Biedronka.
Nurses also point out that there are too few of them on duty.
– At the oncology ward, we administer 200 drips with chemistry to seriously ill patients with cancer. Two of us. These are people who don’t move at all: neither with their finger nor with their eyes. – says sister Anna – Recently new standards of employment in health care have entered into force. According to them, the hospital must hire 64 additional nurses by the end of the year. There is no chance of it. Nurses do not work in our area.
From birth to death on duty
Ms Anna emphasizes that people do not realize that nurses are there to relieve patients.
– The patient’s doctor will examine the patient, make a diagnosis, prescribe medication and leave. But we have full knowledge about the patient: whether he swallowed the medicine, is he full, washed, or is he able to use the toilet by himself. Does he have swelling, pressure ulcers, or is he starting to develop ascites? It is us who pick up all the disturbing symptoms.
And Ewa Rygiel adds: – We have been with patients since their birth, because we deliver deliveries. We accompany them in their diseases, 24 hours a day. We are with a person when he dies. And we have the right to decent care.
PS
Director of the Provincial Hospital Padre Pio in Przemyśl, I asked Piotr Ciompa by e-mail the following questions: What solutions does the management propose regarding nurses’ demands for a salary increase, increasing the number of staff, and the purchase of equipment facilitating work with patients? How much do nurses in his hospital earn and whether there are new arrangements between the hospital management and the authorities at various levels, and what they concern.
Unfortunately, I did not receive an answer.