In Odense and Silkeborg municipalities, where a strike had been announced for a total of 300 nurses, the strike was canceled for the majority of the nurses.
According to the municipalities and the Danish Nurses’ Council (DSR), which is also behind the decisions, this is because it is not possible to do without the employees to solve the most necessary tasks.
At the same time, the number of permanent nurses in the emergency services will exceed the normal staffing. This is because, for example, you are not allowed to replace them with substitutes during a conflict, and in some places there are vacancies, holidays or sick leave.
In Silkeborg Municipality, the strike has been canceled for all nurses.
In addition to not being able to do without many tasks, doctors and pharmacies have also refused to take over some of them during the strike, says Steffen Brun, who is acting head of health and care in the municipality.
This applies, for example, to the dosing of medicines for vulnerable citizens or wound treatment.
– We have individually looked at that if we do not undertake that task, then there is a danger to the citizen’s well-being.
– There may well be a wound treatment where you can say that if we do not treat today, then there is no permanent mobility damage. But if we do not do it tomorrow, then there is.
– So it is not very much in the way that can be omitted, he says.
District chair of the Danish Nurses’ Council’s department in Central Jutland, Anja Laursen, is frustrated with the outcome.
She says that it shows that there are so few nurses employed in Silkeborg Municipality that it is not even possible to strike.
– I think it is extremely shameful that we nurses choose to go on strike because we have a large pay gap.
– And now it turns out that there are simply not enough nurses to provide emergency preparedness for the urgent, life-threatening and mobility-threatening work, says Anja Laursen.
In Odense Municipality, the number of nurses who are on strike in the municipality has been cut from 200 to 25, says John Christiansen, who is chairman of the nurses in Southern Denmark under DSR.
– We show responsibility, in relation to what Odense Municipality asks us when it comes to what preparedness we must provide.
– The strike will look different in Odense Municipality than we had imagined, and therefore we will of course also consider what the next step is, he says.
According to René Lorentzen, acting head of the elderly and disabled in the municipality, nurses who work in areas of authority and with health promotion and prevention are still part of the conflict.
– This is a completely legitimate conflict. But very few of the citizens will be able to do without our help, he says.
According to the plan, about 5,000 nurses have gone on strike from Saturday.
Source: The Nordic Page