Doctors’ sanctions set to return over next 2 weeks

Treasury fails to budge in negotiations despite demonstration by 1,500 physicians, medical students; outpatient clinics south of TA to be closed.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
hospital 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
hospital 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Unimpressed by the mass show of over 1,500 physicians and medical students at Wednesday’s demonstration opposite the Knesset, the Treasury failed to budge in negotiations on Thursday morning. The Israel Medical Association announced in the evening that it would apply sanctions in hospitals on some days during the next two weeks.
Sanctions had been suspended during Pessah.
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On Sunday and Monday, health services will not be affected out of respect to Holocaust Remembrance Day, the IMA said.
On Tuesday, the public hospitals, including outpatient clinics, will operated on a restricted Shabbat schedule. Health fund clinics, however, will function as usual.
On Thursday, May 5, the outpatient clinics in hospitals south of Tel Aviv plus the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center will be shut down. A detailed list of affected hospitals will be published before that.
On Sunday, May 8, a conference on pathology will be attended by all the country’s pathologists (who examine biopsies for cancer and other disease).
As a result, the IMA said, the number of operations will be minimized in all the medical centers during that time.
On Thursday, May 12, all the outpatient clinics will be closed in all public hospitals north of Tel Aviv and including that at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.
A detailed notice will be released soon.
The IMA verbally attacked Ilan Levine, the Finance Ministry’s wage chief, charging him with “wild incitement” against the doctors. The IMA said it had been offered only half the increases it had demanded for strengthening medical care in the periphery. While the IMA called for a 25 percent salary increase for doctors in this key area, the Treasury offered only a 10% hike, the IMA said.
Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen, commenting for the Treasury, countered that “every declaration of the IMA of a strike or sanctions is irresponsible, pointless and immoral. We fear that the continuation of the doctors‚ actions will harm patients.”
Cohen, of Shas, said the IMA continues to demand “selfish wage increases especially for the senior medical personnel. The time has come for them to show responsibility and stop demanding across-the-board wage increases for all doctors and to agree to time clocks for all doctors.”
The Treasury reiterated its willingness for arbitration to find a solution to the dispute within a limited amount of time and subjects “to benefit the public, his welfare and health.”
The IMA on Thursday for the first time released to the public a detailed list of 15 demands it is making to bring about an end to the wage dispute.