All non-emergency surgical services cut

All non-emergency surgical services at the National University Hospital of Iceland (‘Landspítali’) have been cut after 1,400 of the hospital’s nurses came out on strike at midnight.

Just 44 nurses are left in Surgical Services and over half of the beds in the emergency ward are to be closed, according to Head of Surgical Services at Landspítali, Lilja Stef­áns­dótt­ir. Practically all day-patient and outpatient services will be cut during the strike.

Stef­áns­dótt­ir points out that this bout of industrial action comes on the heels of previous health-service strikes (e.g. the doctors’ strike of November 2014). Waiting lists caused by previous strikes have not yet been cleared.

According to Stefánsdóttir, efforts are being made to secure more strike exemptions in order to get more staff into work and ensure that no direct harm is caused.

Lilja Stef­áns­dótt­ir, Head of Surgical Services at Landspítali. Photo: Ómar Óskars­son