The government says it expects a labor court to send striking employees from the Clalit HMO back to work, as a hearing on the walkout gets underway.
The Health Ministry says in a statement that the single-day strike “is already causing serious harm to thousands of patients, including the elderly, children and chronic sufferers, and the mounting damage to the health system and the public is quite heavy.”
The ministry says it is in constant contact with Clalit management regarding the strike.
“The Health Ministry… calls on and expects the labor court to order an immediate end to the strike.”
The strike was called by Clalit workers yesterday to protest what it said was an attempt by the Health Ministry to take over management of the HMO, Israel’s largest, which runs hundreds of clinics and several of the country’s largest hospitals.
Doctors, who are part of a separate union, are not striking, but are essentially unable to work beyond performing telemedicine functions, due to the striking workers shutting clinics and most non-emergency health services, the Ynet news site reports.
A hearing on the strike was scheduled to start at 9 a.m.
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