Hospitals cut back services Thursday as doctors call strike
Crowding expected as medical centers switch to weekend footing; labor action is ‘pointless,’ charges health minister
Hospitals across the country will operate on reduced weekend footing Thursday, as doctors and health workers go on strike following the break down of 11th-hour labor talks with the Finance Ministry.
The labor action is expected to create long lines at hospitals and elective surgeries will be canceled. Patients seeking non-urgent care are being urged to push off appointments or turn to HMOs for treatment.
The move was announced at about 1 a.m. Thursday after talks between the doctors’ union and Finance Ministry representatives in Jerusalem over demanded reforms failed to produce results. Talks are expected to resume next week, according to the Ynet news site.
Doctors’ union head Leonid Edelman said the doctors are seeking changes that will reduce waiting times for patients in hospitals, to allow doctors more break time during their shifts and to prevent a move planned by Health Minister Yaakov Litzman to levy fines on hospital administrators who go over budget.
“Our fight is not over salaries, our fight is over investment in the health system, over bringing in new doctors, standards for doctors and cutting waiting periods,” Edelman said.
However, critics, including government officials and some fellow health professionals, have accused the union of embarking on a needless labor action as a show of strength that will hurt patients.
The Health Ministry accused Edelman of changing his demands from two weeks ago, when the union first threatened to strike. At the time, Edelman said the move was over department heads’ right to also maintain private practices.
“It seems to us that the doctors’ union has decided to strike just to strike. Two weeks ago they claimed that it was over department heads, now they claim that it is over shortening lines and adding standards,” a senior source in the ministry said, according to Ynet.
Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was more direct. “This is a pointless strike, without a real reason, that won’t bring any benefit to the patients or the health system,” he said in a Thursday morning statement.
“The Health Ministry is conducting intensive engagement with the Finance Ministry in order to bolster the public health system with additional beds, manpower and more resources, alongside many other steps we are taking for the benefit of patients, doctors and the system as a whole,” he added.
“The central fear of the doctors that the private work of department heads will be curtailed is no longer relevant, because the article relating to this issue was removed from the Appropriations Law.”
He concluded: “It’s hard not to feel that this strike is motivated by something other than concern for the public good.”
The Finance Ministry said earlier Wednesday that it had made progress with the union and expected the strike to be canceled, Channel 2 reported, though that seemed unlikely by Thursday morning.
