Doctors meet in Tel Aviv, call on IMA chair to resign

Meeting at Ichilov hospital addresses founding rival medical union to IMA; doctors express their support of medical residents who resigned.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, JOANNA PARASZCZUK
doctors protest 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
doctors protest 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Some 100 department heads from 11 different hospitals gathered at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv Tuesday night to discuss preparations for the founding of a medical union to rival the Israel Medical Association (IMA).
Doctors expressed their dissatisfaction with the agreement recently signed between IMA chair Dr. Leonid Eidelman and the Finance Ministry in late August, which ended a months-long struggle by doctors over wages.
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Residents, interns end hunger strike after one daySeveral physicians at the meeting also called for Dr. Eidelman to resign, and said they supported the residents who were continuing the struggle for their wages.
The meeting came after 200 residents privately resigned on Tuesday in response to a  National Labor Court ruling on Sunday that deemed the coordinated mass resignation of residents and interns illegal.
In a unanimous ruling, the National Labor Court issued an injunction ordering 1,000 residents who had signed letters of resignation to report to work as usual. The court ruled that the resignations signed by the residents were illegal and therefore invalid. "Failure to report to work as stated will constitute an unauthorized abandonment of their jobs by the workers, and will be subject to the appropriate consequences," the court ruled.
Despite the agreement signed in late August by the Israel Medical Association and the Finance Ministry to end the six-month long nationwide doctors' strikes, some doctors were still upset with the resolution, and attempted to resign from their positions on Sunday in protest.