Tunis – Doctors in Tunisia on Wednesday began nationwide strike to push for reforms in the healthcare sector, rocked in recent months by corruption allegations and medical blunders.
Thousands of medical professionals protested outside government headquarters in the capital, Tunis, and provincial offices throughout the country.
The protesters carried placards some of which read “United to save our profession” and “Tunisia’s doctors are an honour for Tunisia.”
The day-long stoppage follows a string of media complaints about a decline in medical services in the North African country.
Prosecutors are currently investigating the death of a newborn under dubious circumstances at a government-run hospital in the north-eastern province of Sousse.
In August last year, a medical control team of the National Health Insurance Fund found that expired cardiac stents had been implanted in a number of patients.
Three patients also died last summer after they were given expired anaesthestics at some hospitals, the Health Ministry said at the time.
Tunisia is in the grip of an economic slowdown resulting from unrest since the 2011 overthrow of long-time dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The country is also struggling with an Islamist insurgency.
In 2015, a string of attacks took place in Tunisia that had a major effect on tourism, a main source of income for the country.
Most of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State militia.