Nurses’ strike pushed back to give negotiations a chance

Nurses will strike on Monday, rather than Sunday, to give discussions a chance to work, the Histadrut labor federation announced Friday, according to Israel Radio. Non-crucial services will be limited during the strike, like on Shabbat, the nurses union announced Thursday.

Weeks of negotiations between union leaders and finance ministry representatives yielded no results, the nurses said.

The nurses have been complaining for months that they are understaffed, and that there is a lack of equipment, mainly rooms and beds for patients, resulting in overcrowding of up to 140 percent at hospitals throughout the country.

Nurses have warned that this is a life-threatening situation. “There are patients sleeping in hallways, and sometimes people can wait for hours before they receive medical attention,” they said in a statement.

On February 15 nurses at the Soroka hospital in Beersheba and the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon left their posts for two hours, in protest of massive overcrowding and under-staffing.