Health minister calls on ambulance staff to raise “adequate” salary demands

Zurab Azarashvili, the Georgian health minister, on Monday responded to ongoing protests by ambulance personnel for a rise in wages, saying “everyone may raise demands for doubled wages, but such demands should be adequate”. 

He stressed his body was doing its ”utmost ” to ensure better working conditions for medical workers, admitting their wages were still low. 

“The government had specified minimum monthly salaries for medical workers, which is about 800 GEL for nurses and 1,200 for doctors.Of course, this is not a decent salary, but the government had ensured maximum efforts it could at this stage”, he said. 

The minister noted “unlike other medical workers”, the ambulance service workers had received  bonuses three times last year.