Medical residents vow mass resignations if shift-shortening deal not honored

Outraged medical residents are threatening mass resignations by the end of this month if the government fails to honor its promise to shorten hospital shifts as per an agreement reached earlier this year.

Yesterday the government said it would again postpone the scheduled reduction of 26-hour shifts until September 2023 — a year and a half after it was originally set to start — due to manpower problems.

Dr. Ray Biton, head of the Mirsham organization of medical residents, says masses will resign if the government does not start honoring its commitments by August 25.

Biton says the postponement is “unnecessary and disproportional and in effect buries almost any ability to carry out the plan.”

She says the government “has not lived up to any obligation and any agreements with us, and continues to harmfully and dangerously employ [residents] in slavery conditions.”

“We are ready to go to the end,” she says.