Also on Tuesday, the head of a doctors’ union warned that fitness staff may simply go on strike if a solution to the growing hospital deficit is not uncovered. Hospital leaders stated that the need for services to treat COVID-19 patients and the cancellation of many elective procedures had negatively affected their outcomes.
“I hope it’s not possible, but if there’s no other option, we’ll claim a labor dispute. I call the Ministry of Finance and government officials: Go back to reason, allocate the funds,” Dr Zeev said. Feldman, president of the Israeli Medical Association, told the Ynet news site.
He also said hospitals faced bed shortages, a day after the Knesset Research and Information Centre reported that 19 beds had been added to medical facilities since the start of the pandemic.
Ofer Marin, director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, complained Monday that hospitals were overcrowded.
“The departments are absolutely complete and we have no [medical] equipment. Yesterday we canceled operations. We send other people in poor health home. It’s a disgrace,” Marín told the Thirteenth Channel.
Ehud Grossman, head of the inmate branch of Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, also painted a disastrous picture of his hospital’s current condition.
“The departments are collapsing. Three rooms have quarantined crews and are overcrowded. We don’t have a job reservation,” he said.
Grossman added, “I’ve been a doctor for many years and I’ve never noticed anything like this in hospitals in Israel.”
Edelstein gave the impression of responding to some of the criticism on Tuesday, saying that the Department of Health would begin informing hospitals and fitness maintenance organizations about the number of new doctors and nurses they would receive. The National Nurses Union and the Ministry of Finance signed an agreement last month to raise 2,000 transitional nursing posts and 400 doctors following a one-day strike for labor shortages.