IMA head calls on PM to get involved in doctors’ dispute

Dr. Leonid Eidelman: “for first time in state’s history, state comptroller agreed that patients are dying due to the failure of the health system.”

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
doctors protest 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
doctors protest 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman on Thursday called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is also formally health minister, to intervene urgently in the doctors’ crisis.
So far, the prime minister has allowed senior wage officials from the Treasury to negotiate, although no advances have been made in over two months of talks.
Eidelman said that “for the first time in the state’s history, the state comptroller agreed that patients are dying due to the failure of the health system.”
In its chapter on the Health Ministry, the semiannual State Comptroller’s Report, released Tuesday, gave backing to IMA arguments by documenting serious physician shortages and hospital overcrowding.
Meanwhile, IMA physicians will hold a symbolic Lag Ba’omer bonfire on Sunday to declare that “doctors are unwilling to continue to put out fires” in the health system. The bonfire will be held in the Reading parking lot in Tel Aviv between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The IMA has also declared that all public hospitals will be run according to a reduced Shabbat schedule that day.
Ziv Hospital in Safed, which is closest to Mount Meron, where the massive Lag Ba'omer pilgrimage takes place Saturday night and Sunday, will be exempt from sanctions so doctors can treat victims of burns and other injuries.