Strike at Tiberias hospital causes patients trouble

Health Ministry-run Poriya Hospital in Tiberias suffers shortage of services due to strike.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Hospital beds 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Hospital beds 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Patients were not served meals, bathrooms were not cleaned, outpatient clinics were closed, receptionists were not at their posts and stretcher-bearers disappeared at the Poriya Hospital in Tiberias on Monday. The hospital is owned and supervised by the Health Ministry.
The workers launched an open-ended strike to protest “overwork and the lack of adequate manpower slots,” that have caused the staffers to “collapse under the burden.”
Some 300 hospital administrative and maintenance workers at the hospital went on strike, saying that development had caused it to grow and develop without management hiring additional employees.
“Management was asked [to participate in] negotiation, but our demands and those of the Histadrut have been ignored,” the union declared.
Avi Gabai, head of the Histadrut labor federation’s Kinneret region, said that the situation is impossible and called on hospital management to open negotiations immediately so the strike can end.
When asked to comment, ministry spokeswoman Einav Shimron-Greenbaum said that direct talks are being held by the hospital management, workers‚ union and Histadrut in an effort to bring an end to the strike. She did not answer how the patients are being fed, the wards cleaned and other vital tasks carried out in Poriya.


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