The rally was held to demand that the government prioritized the health system and provided adequate funding. Protesters also demanded the introduction of a basic salary for doctors and adequate workload for medics.
“We want to live at least like average EU citizens by 2020. Our health system must be funded and wages should at least match the EU average,” Živilė Gudlevičienė, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Medical Movement association, said addressing the crowd.
The Lithuanian government has announced that doctors’ salaries will grow by 20 percent as of May 1, and is also committed to raising doctor’s average salary to three average salaries in the country by 2020 and to 1.5 of the average salary for nurses.