“Thousands of doctors will protest on Sunday [August 29] outside the Health Ministry [in Jerusalem] the collapse of seven public hospitals and the government’s indifference to the crisis,” Zo Haderech has reported, quoting from a joint announcement made by the respective administrations of the hospitals. The seven medical centers involved are Sha’are Zedek and Hadassah in Jerusalem, Laniado in Netanya, Ma’ayanei Hayeshua in Bnei Brak and Nazareth’s three hospitals. They are protesting the continuing delay in receiving the emergency funding that was promised them by the Health Ministry back in January.

A medical technologist crew on strike (Photo: Medical Technologist’s Union)

Currently, the hospitals are not accepting non-emergency patients, ambulances are only being accepted for COVID-19 life-saving cases and important surgeries are not being performed unless they are essential.

According to the January agreement with the Health Ministry, the hospitals were supposed to get a monthly budget of NIS 105 million to cover their deficits. On Monday, representatives of the seven hospitals held a press conference next to the Health Ministry, at the close of which, they were asked to meet with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Director General of the Health Ministry Nahman Ash. However, the meeting did not result in any substantial progress in defusing the problem, thus the doctors employed at the seven public hospitals in question intend to hold their protest in Jerusalem today, Sunday.

Medical Technologists Escalate Their Labor Dispute

Meanwhile, in a separate labor dispute, Israel’s medical technologist’s struggle to better their employment conditions in hospitals across the country is also expected to worsen today. The medical technologists intend to escalate their sanctions to a full strike, meaning that entire hospital medical system will not be functioning at least for today. The medical technologists commenced sanctions with a partial strike on Tuesday of last week, August 24.

Related: Medical Workers Have Begun Sanctions over Labor Dispute