The Algarve is in for the worst of the three-day nurses strike that started today.
Union leader José Carlos Martins has promised a “total lack of nurses” at the boroughs’ health centres, and queues of patients in Portimão and Faro hospitals where A&R units are already packed (click here Algarve’s “understaffed” casualty departments packed with “dehydrated seniors”)
The only ‘saving grace’ is that the region has two days to prepare. Today (Tuesday) is the date for the strike in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo areas, while tomorrow it will be the turn of the Alentejo.
For an update on the strike’s effects, see our paper edition coming out on Thursday.
The three-days of strikes have been called by nurses union SEP over pay and conditions.
As Martins told reporters, nurses are “deeply unsatisfied” and have “every reason to go on strike”.
