The Jerusalem District Court today issued a 90-day stay of proceedings for Hadassah Medical Center, during which the hospital will draw up a recovery plan. Negotiations on the hospital's recovery plan will begin in a few days. The hospital will also receive a NIS 50 million grant from the government and NIS 50 million from Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America.
The court hearing on Monday ended without a decision. During the hearing, it emerged that 70% of Hadassah's NIS 1.3 billion debt, or NIS 917 million, was owed to employees. Hadassah CEO Avigdor Kaplan told the court, "It is possible to cure Hadassah and bring it to safe haven, but both parties - the government and the workers - must dig into their pockets." He promised "to do everything to save Hadassah, with all the background and 54 years experience. I will try not to disappoint this time too."
Hadassah Hospital, with the backing of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Health, is seeking to fire scores of administrative and support staff, cancel benefits included in collective labor contracts, make an across-the-board and differential pay cuts to doctors and employees, and rein in private healthcare services, limit doctors' private practice to the afternoon, and raise the hospital's take from these services from 15% to 40%.
Today, Hadassah's doctors withdrew their threat to abandon the wards if malpractice insurance was not settled, after they received the policies for review. However, as part of the ongoing labor dispute, a two-hour solidarity strike by hospitals nationwide began at 10 am today.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 11, 2014
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