Did the Minister of Health give the interns a "check without cover"?

Will the internship crisis erupt again?

Already during the solemn announcement of the solution to the crisis, it became clear that there were gaps between what the interns had apparently achieved - and the understandings between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health.

Why did the Minister of Health rush to present a solution that has no funding?

"Managed the crisis with populism," says a source close to details

Liat Ron

06/03/2022

Sunday, 06 March 2022, 12:44 Updated: 13:11

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At the end of October 2021, the interns declared a landslide victory after a struggle of years: the outline of shortening the shifts in hospitals from 26 hours to 18 hours is underway.

The agreements were accompanied by excited speeches, hugs

and a sense of relief, as Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and his office's director general, Nachman Ash, published the outline they agreed with the Ministry of Finance and was due to take effect in early April.

The Treasury hinted that the distance between Horowitz's publications and what was agreed with the ministry that was supposed to budget for the reform is so great that there is a real fear that the health minister understood what he wanted to understand, regardless of reality - and the outline will not take effect.

Indeed, last weekend Horowitz angrily attacked the Ministry of Finance, claiming that he put wheels in the health care system and did not allow it to act to promote public health and begin implementing the outline in a timely manner.

For three days now, representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Health have been negotiating and trying to bridge this gap, with the struggle of the interns, disappointed by the idle promises, threatening to break out again at any moment.

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Submission of the interns' letters of resignation, the culmination of the struggle that led to the formulation of the outline.

It now turns out that the interns received a check without cover (Photo: official website, prescription)

"Horowitz managed the crisis out of fantasies and populism"

According to the October agreements, the outline for shortening shifts is set to begin on April 1, in ten emergency departments and inpatient wards in hospitals in the periphery, alongside two hospitals included in the center’s social periphery.

For the purpose of implementing the outline, the Ministry of Health is requesting 220 standards for staffing in hospitals.

The Ministry of Finance fears that the number of standards approved by hospitals in the periphery will have a direct effect on the number of standards requested for the second beat in hospitals in the center and refuses to specify the number of standards they are willing to approve, both for the first and second rounds.

"Horowitz went for populism and fantasies in managing the internship crisis," says a senior health official, "he dispels illusions that no one understands where they came from. He's not just a populist, he's a hapless.

An examination of the facts in the field proves that there are indeed problems, especially in the gaps between the way the outline is marketed and the interns, and what has been agreed between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health.

At the end of September 2021, it was reported in the media that the Ministry of Health estimates that the cost of shortening shifts will be NIS 426 million a year.

In practice, the ministry promised to allocate only about NIS 60 million, including them, on a one-time basis this year.

Horowitz's demand for an additional NIS 30 million was met with a firm refusal by the Treasury.

Horowitz's statement that he demanded and received in the framework of the state budget negotiations a significant addition to move a national move to shorten the shifts is also unknown to anyone, which did not prevent Horowitz from saying angrily: "What stands between us and the implementation of the outline is the refusal .

The Minister of Health presents the outline of the interns (October 2021)

In the video: Horowitz presented an extended outline for shortening the shifts in hospitals (Ministry of Health)

Each intern will lose thousands of shekels a month?

And speaking of promises, then even the promise that 100 dedicated doctors' standards will be allocated each year for the purpose of shortening shifts, at a cost of NIS 244 million a year, has not been implemented in practice.

There is currently not even one new dedicated standard in the system, so it is not clear how 100 standards will be added at once.

To this can be added the letter sent four days ago by

where he clarified that there are not enough doctors to implement the outline.

"In view of the shortage of CAs," Gordos wrote, "it is not possible to rely on a significant standard addition for the outline, alongside a further increase in the level of activity in the hospitals, as there are not enough doctors to do so."

One of the most significant clauses for interns is the promise that shortening shifts will not hurt their salaries.

In practice, this is a cut of about 30% of their salary, which means a reduction of about 7,000 shekels per month from their salary, a fatal injury that many interns are not willing to accept under any conditions.

As stated the dispute between the parties is so great that, as it seems now, at the beginning of April there seems to be no shortening of shifts, but rather an extensive internship strike.

Medical students demonstrate against Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz.

Will they return to the streets soon? (Photo: TPS, Elyashiv Rakovsky)

The reactions

The Ministry of Finance declined to comment.

A detailed list of questions has been submitted to the Ministry of Health, which has not yet been answered - we will be happy to publish it if and when it is received.

responded: After Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz issued an almost unprecedented statement over the weekend, it was made clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was fraud here. To the Ministry of Health. We and our shifts only provide material here for another battle in a game that is not ours. We are held hostage in this power game. We and our patients.

We clarified and we clarify again: if there is no shortcut - no interns! Hitting doctors and interns, in any way, will find us in front of him stronger, more united and determined than ever! It can not happen! Not at the expense of our lives! Not after everything we have been through and sacrificed.

It is also important for us to say that the silence of the Medical Association is thunderous and screaming.

Which workers' organization would allow itself to be silent after they deceived

its people ?, after threatening to cut thousands of shekels in their salaries ?, after demanding a change in the length of their training?

- who found another way to act to thwart the move to shorten the shifts. Hari, the representative workers' organization of doctors in Israel, once again chose a side - and again it is not our side.

There is no other way to explain the shame of this thunderous silence.

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• Nitzan Horowitz

• the minister of Health

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• Interns

• Ministry of Finance