The struggle of public hospital administrators is escalating. Today (Thursday), the protesters sent a letter to the director general of MDA in which they claim “we will not be able to accept ambulances and patients who do not need life-saving treatment, starting this coming Sunday.” Recall, the protest began after negotiations with the Ministry of Finance, for an additional budget for public hospitals, ran aground.
According to them, the refusal of the Ministry of Finance to conduct negotiations “seriously, for the sake of saving public hospitals”, has led to a severe shortage of resources. According to the report, Shaare Zedek, Laniado, Maayan Hayeshua and three hospitals in Nazareth will not receive the ambulances starting Sunday at 06:00.
Protest of public hospitals (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)At the same time, hospital administrators turned to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanded that he intervene immediately in the crisis in order to prevent the collapse of the hospitals. Earlier today, the protesters demonstrated in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
The struggle headquarters of the hospitals has been leading a protest tent in front of the Ministry of Finance for several days. The person who arrived at the encampment yesterday was Deputy Health Minister MK Yoav Kish, who told the protesters: “Your protest is legitimate, the Ministry of Finance must duplicate what you received in 2020 to 2021, otherwise the public hospitals will not survive the corona and will not be able to participate in the national effort. Do not succumb to the attempts of segregation and domination of finance officials. ‘
Hadassah CEO Prof. Zeev Rothstein joined in and said: “We are now in a cash crisis. We have to pay suppliers and we are working on the latest drops. We take advantage of existing inventories, but we do not have the financial capacity to continue to stock up. “Some of the surgeries have already been postponed and even though we contacted the Ministry of Health and asked to regulate patients in Corona elsewhere, we still had 12 patients in the last day and that is despite the fact that they promised us other things.” Patients.
Hadassah CEO Prof. Zeev Rothstein in protest of public hospitals (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)Health Minister Yuli Edelstein also arrived at the encampment and held a meeting with hospital administrators in the evening. During the meeting, Edelstein said he also agreed with the reason for the protest. ‘Your struggle is right and we all sympathize with it. We understand that you do not want to solve it with a band-aid, even if it is the best band-aid. I will work with the government to reach the best solution. “
In response, Prof. Ofer Marin, CEO of Shaare Zedek, said: “Every minute, every hour, every day, when seven hospital administrators, who are responsible for the health of 2 million citizens at the height of the corona, sit here in the tent, instead of being with staff and patients – it is a shame for the country . We’ve been here four days, and no one is negotiating with us. Shaare Zedek did not pay taxes on the 15th of the month, because we have no more money. We will not get any plaster solution and no less than a two-year solution. ‘