The Health Ministry issued instructions on Monday to directors of 10 government
and Clalit Health Services hospitals for functioning in the event that some 800
medical residents make good on their threats to resign on October 4.
If
they do not take back their letters by then, Sheba, Rambam, Assaf Harofeh,
Wolfson, Bnei Zion, Meir, Rabin, Schneider, Kaplan and Sourasky Medical Centers
will suddenly have fewer doctors to fill job slots, especially on nights and
weekends.
Those who signed personal letters of resignation are protesting
against the terms of the settlement signed by the Israel Medical Association and
the government at the end of August.
There are hospital departments that
will suffer from distress if the resignations are carried out, wrote Dr. Chezy
Levy, head of the ministry’s medical administration. The ministry aims at
minimizing the disruptions in the provision of medical
services.
Ambulatory services and elective surgery will be reduced, and
vacations and trips by hospital directors and department heads will be
canceled.
The ministry also issued details about the reduction in the
number of night and weekend shifts for medical residents working in the
periphery to six monthly – a benefit worked out in the new agreement – as well
as financial benefits for doctors who agree to study for a specialty in which
there is too little manpower.
Asked what they plan to do if they resign,
many of the residents said they would look into work in the biotech industry or
consider leaving the country for medical posts and study abroad.