Austrian doctors voted to close their
practices on June 16 and possibly two additional days during the Euro 2008
championships, Austrian news agency APA reported Saturday.
In protest against a health reform planned by the government, up to
15,000 medical practices will remain shuttered on the day Austria face Germany
in Vienna and Croatia play against Poland in Klagenfurt.
Doctors employed by hospitals will not participate in the strike.
Hospitals don't expect to be overburdened on strike days, because striking
doctors will refer hardly any patients to them, a doctor at Vienna's Lainz
hospital told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
If the government does not meet doctors' demands by June 16, there would be
further strikes on June 26 and 27, as well as in early July, the Austrian
medical association decided today.
By striking, doctors want to prevent the national health care
provider from conducting regular quality controls of practices and from
limiting its contracts with doctors to five years, dpa reported.