Longtime opponents in doctors’ protest to compromise

Deputy Health Minister Litzman and IMA chairman Dr. Eidelman agree to cooperate "out of obligation to welfare of patients."

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Deputy Litzman meets with IMA chairman Dr Eidelman (photo credit: Courtesy/Health Ministry)
Deputy Litzman meets with IMA chairman Dr Eidelman
(photo credit: Courtesy/Health Ministry)
Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman, who for a long period had strained relations with Israel Medical Association Chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman, met with him in his office on Tuesday to discuss the potential upheaval in the health system if 732 medical residents and specialists follow through next week on their signed resignations.
The doctors are protesting the nine-year labor agreement signed by the IMA and the employers (including the Treasury and Health Ministry) at the end of August.
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Litzman and Eidelman agreed to cooperate “out of an obligation to the welfare of patients and to promote the advancement of the health system.”
Meanwhile, the IMA said it would demand the arrangement for a weekly rest day after six nights and weekends of shift duty. This problem had not been resolved in the agreement signed at the end of the long doctors’ strike. In a letter sent Tuesday by IMA Secretary-General Lea Wapner to the Treasury’s wage division legal adviser, Kobi Amsalem, it was written that the problem must be solved.