Doctors on Strike!

Strikes are extremely common here, often including all outpatient physicians (inpatient doctors always continue attending).  Before we arrived in August, there had been over 50 days of strikes in 2012!  Many of these days were due to the fact that the Santa Cruz government had not paid the doctors in several months.  Topics range from internal politics (according to our nurse, a politician of Evo Morales's socialist party basically imposed himself above the hospital director, so now a politician of the moment runs the hospital instead of a doctor) to matters beyond health care (ie striking in solidarity with a miner’s strike against nationalizing a quarry).  

Me enjoying some down time at the main plaza during a
hospital strike day. I was watching an ant run around a tile
 trying frantically to get out of it without crossing the grout.
It was actually utterly fascinating

It’s quite interesting, and makes you appreciate working in a more secure, predictable environment.  For now, it makes it incredibly difficult to collect patients.  The other day during a strike I went to find "healthy" hospital comers.  In the large entrance, the majority of the people were cameramen!  Needless to say I've been in the background of local news multiple times.  One poor man was quoted in the newspaper, "I haven't peed for 2 days and need to see a doctor."  Someone direct that man to the ER...!