BY CLAUDIA OVERESCH
AND GYLFI PÁLL HERSIR  
REYKJAVÍK, Iceland--We traveled to Keflavík in mid-January where we met with people who have been organizing sitdown protests against the reduction of service at a public health clinic.

The crisis at the clinic began when 10 doctors walked out of the hospital November 1, after the authorities refused their demands for higher wages. Only two doctors are presently working at the clinic, which serves 17,000 people.

Helga Valdimarsdóttir, one of the organizers of the protest, said that people who live in the area now either have to wait several hours, or drive one hour to the town of Kópavogur. There is also the option of driving to Reykjavík, where non-government funded health clinic doctors are available, but where people would have to pay a much higher price for treatment in private clinics.

"Some people didn’t go to a doctor at all," said Valdimarsdóttir, noting that not everyone has a car.

The protesters, all women on that day, said they refused to accept this situation. Their sitdown protest in early November prompted a local member of parliament to organize a citywide meeting, with no results. The protest continued later in the month.

On January 10 and 11 some 12 people took part in the sitdown protest, which ended after Valdimarsdóttir was called to a meeting with the health clinic authorities and promised some structural improvements by the director of the clinic, including a pledge to hire doctors.

Valdimarsdóttir and other protesters at the clinic said they were not supporting or acting against the 10 doctors who had worked there. She said they were demanding adequate health care for the residents of the area. At the end of January there are still only two doctors working in the health clinic and it takes up to three days to get a prescription for medicine.

Claudia Overesch is a member of the Young Socialists. Gylfi Páll Hersir is a member of the trade union Hlíf. Hallbjorn Thor Gudmundsson, a member of the Young Socialists, also contributed to this article.  
 
 
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