On Saturday, Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman declared a general strike for Sunday morning at all hospitals in Israel, in view of the crisis at Hadassah Medical Center's hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. The strike has been called a solidarity strike, during which hospitals will only handle emergency cases.
Sources believe that if the government decides to petition the labor court, the strike will be limited to one or two hours, because in Israeli law, solidarity strikes are very restricted.
The reason for the strike is the pay cut at Hadassah Hospital and the unilateral filing by management and the Ministry of Finance for a stay of proceedings. On Friday, Hadassah's management petitioned for a stay of proceedings, in which, for the first time, it disclosed figures on the hospital's finances, salaries, income from private healthcare services, income-producing real estate, which generates millions of shekels a year, and more.
Hadassah will not fail," promised Finance on Saturday, a day after Hadassah Medical Center filed for the stay of proceedings. He made the remark on "Channel 2's" "Meet the Press".
Lapid said that the government would help Hadassah, but under Ministry of Finance supervision. "We want to help Hadassah, but not in a way that we'll end up in the same situation in three months. Hadassah won't fail; it's too big to fail, and all Jerusalem depends on it.
"There was management failure for years. Everything has to be rebuilt, while being careful not to harm patients. The important thing is to embark on a recovery plan. Ultimately, you and I are paying for this, and we won't agree to pay just to return to the same situation in three months."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 9, 2014
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