Hospitals strike to protest violence against medical staff

The medical staff of two Israeli hospitals went on strike for several hours on Sunday, protesting violent attacks against doctors and nurses that occurred at the end of last week.

At Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, Dr. Zehava Glick, the head of the geriatric department, was attacked by the daughter of a patient on Thursday. She was not injured, and the woman accused of the attack was arrested and banned from the ward for the next two weeks. The medical staff there will return to work at 1:00 p.m. Sunday.

A far more serious attack took place at Holon’s Wolfson Hospital, where a male nurse was admitted to the neurological department suffering from a possible cerebral concussion following an attack by a person who accompanied a patient to the hospital.

One nurse at Wolfson Hospital, Roni Greenspan, told Army Radio on Sunday morning that there are no security cameras at Wolfson as there are at other hospitals, and she fears that the current lack of security will result in a murder eventually taking place. The strike at Wolfson finished at noon on Sunday.

Last week a bill passed its first reading in the Knesset which, if passed, would impose five years’ imprisonment for anybody who attacks a social worker, doctor, nurse or paramedic.

In late May, the medical staff of Nahariya Hospital of the Western Galilee went on strike for two hours after an emergency room doctor was attacked.