Talks with Treasury yielding 'absolutely no progress'

Israel Medical Association decides to apply further sanctions; only urgent surgery to treat cancer patients will be performed.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
YA’ACOV LITZMAN (photo credit: (Ariel Jerozolimski)
YA’ACOV LITZMAN
(photo credit: (Ariel Jerozolimski)
With “absolutely no progress” from discussions with the Treasury on Thursday, the Israel Medical Association decided to apply sanctions next week, as on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
Doctors’ assemblies will be held on Sunday morning, but hospital and health fund services will be normal. But on Monday and Tuesday, only urgent surgery to treat cancer patients and no elective surgery will be performed.
Other services will continue in the hospitals.
On Wednesday, all public hospitals in the country will operate according to reduced Shabbat schedules, with outpatient clinics closed as well, except for urgent outpatient and inpatient cases approved by special committees.
The Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the announcement by the Israel Medical Association had proved that it still “hasn’t renounced its intent to institute private medical services in public-sector hospitals [Sharap].”
The Treasury reiterated its call on the IMA to return to the negotiating table and focus on the discussions on cutting the gaps between the wages of younger doctors and of veteran doctors.
However, the IMA said the Treasury was spreading “misinformation” by making it seem as though the sanctions were all about the doctors’ “desire” for Sharap, when in fact it hasn’t been raised by the doctors but rather by Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman as a “solution” for the ills of the health system.
Meanwhile, 250 medical students from around the country will join Friday’s Tel Aviv Marathon as a run to protest against the crisis and to demand that public medicine “be saved and doctors be given fair wages for their efforts.”