Doctors to strike against budget on Nov 20 (4)

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 23 - Italy's doctors and other medical staff staff said Wednesday they will strike on Wednesday November 20 against the 2025 budget bill which they described as "disappointing" in the pay rises to staff it envisages.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni has said the package gives unprecedented funding to the national health service but the opposition denies this.
    The strike, which will feature a rally in a major Rome square, was called by doctors' unions Anaao and Cimo and by the nurses' union Nursing Up.
    The text of the budget bill for 2025, the unions explained, "confirms the reduction in healthcare funding compared to what was announced in recent weeks and changes the rules of the game compared to what has been proclaimed for months".
    The pacakge, they pointed out, provides for an increase in the medical health specificity allowance of 17 euros net for doctors and 14 euros net for healthcare managers for 2025, 115 euros in 2026 for doctors and zero for healthcare managers, while nurses would receive about 7 euros for 2025 and about 80 euros for 2026, and it is no better for other healthcare professions.
    Moreover, they said, "we are talking about resources linked, for the most part, to a contract whose discussion will only begin in at least two years, and which will arrive in the pockets of those concerned who knows when. In short, essentially crumbs that offend the entire category".
    The unions Anaao Assomed, Cimo-Fesmed and Nursing Up therefore proclaimed a 24-hour national strike on November 20 of doctors, health managers, nurses and other health professionals. (ANSA).