"I was fired because I did not agree to 'eliminate' the hospital's doctors' committee," says the director of the Valley Hospital in Afula, Dr. Ziv Rosenbaum, with an unprecedented accusation in the health system in Israel.
The Doctors' Action Committee, made up of senior doctors and 23 department heads, has in recent years called for redressing hospital discrimination and working against discrimination in the quality of care and medical service in the north of the country. "Of a public body manager and was done while Clalit Health Insurance Fund acted in extreme bad faith and while it grossly violated the rules that obligate it as the largest employer in the health system in Israel."
Dr. Rosenbaum claims in the application he submitted to the Nazareth Labor Court that Clalit management has been trying to fire him in recent weeks, even though he was appointed to a term that was due to end in September 2023. Yesterday, the fund went to the Labor Court in Nazareth.
Dr. Ziv Rosenbaum, Photo: Gil Eliyahu / Ginny
The Valley Hospital was founded in 1924 as a Clalit hospital designed to serve the pioneer settlers in the Jezreel Valley, and today includes 529 hospital beds and serves a population of about 700,000 Israelis from the valleys, Nazareth, Gilboa and Wadi Ara. It is treated and 12,500 surgeries are performed.
At Dr. Rosenbaum's request to the court, he refers data from the management's report, detailing the facts, according to which morbidity rates in the north are among the highest in Israel;
The north has a significant inferiority of health infrastructure compared to the Haifa area and the center, including the numbers of doctors, hospital beds, intensive care beds and operating rooms;
And "Valley Hospital is a peripheral hospital, suffering from a shortage of manpower, infrastructure and budgets."
The emergency room at Haemek Hospital,
Against this background, protests have begun in recent years from senior doctors and department heads, claiming the ongoing discrimination and discrimination on the part of the hospital, and an acute crisis of trust has arisen between them and the hospital and fund management, which has not been resolved to date. A precedent in the health care system.
Constant distress
Dr. Rosenbaum has been working at the fund for 26 years and was appointed in September 2019 to manage the Valley Hospital, after serving as deputy director of the Rabin-Beilinson Medical Center and head of the fund's technology division.
Rosenbaum states that when he took office, Prof. Ehud Davidson, then CEO of Clalit, instructed him that "hospital employees do not trust the hospital's management and the fund's management, and their perception is that the 'valley' management serves the interests of the fund's management and not those of Beya. "H. The department heads are protesting the constant distress due to the lack of budgets, infrastructure and technologies."
Following the doctors' protest, Prof. Davidson promised in his role as CEO of the fund that the hospital would become an outstanding center of Clalit and the state in the north as part of the five-year plan, similar to Soroka Hospital in the south. News that does not exist today and extensive construction.
However, a week ago, a meeting was held with the board of directors of the Valley Hospital.
According to the request, this announcement "provoked anger and disappointment among doctors." Earlier, on January 11, Dr. Rosenbaum claims that he met with Clalit, who told him that " "You want a manager who will not allow the existence of the doctors' action committee, while you allow the existence and continuation of its activities."
"Everything is a sham"
The director responded to the request that "the dissatisfaction of the action committee stems from a lack of trust in the management that does not fulfill all its promises to develop the hospital." Against him unilaterally. The director is represented by Adv. Arena Lynn and Adv. Lee Ilan from the law firm Arena Lynn & Co.
As part of the application to the Labor Court in Nazareth, the allegations of senior doctors at the hospital about Clalit's management, the level of treatment and inferior medical services at the hospital are also revealed, in addition to the allegations of failures, which were exposed in Israel Today.
The protest of the department's directors and senior doctors at the hospital was handed over to John Locker, chairman of Clalit's board, earlier this week. The medical that the hospital can provide to citizens, who have accumulated for decades and whose essence is severe discrimination of the population.
We were under the impression that a five-year plan would be formulated to close the gaps, but it became clear to us this week that everything was a sham and that there was no value in promises, handshakes, and even written documents.
This is further proof of the center's preference over the periphery. "
"Intolerable discrimination"
"We demand that you unequivocally and irrevocably instruct the fund's board to act as one to end the unbearable discrimination of the 'Valley' and the citizens of the periphery, and we demand that all hospital resources and conditions be continued for the hospital director to continue implementing the five-year plan. They are not acceptable in Israeli culture. "
Even before that, the department directors wrote to Locker that the dismissal of the hospital director from his position was "an immoral and non-collegial move for the director, who for two and a half years invested all his energy in trying to promote the hospital, despite the challenges on the ground."
Clalit's management responded: "Clalit is committed as before and unquestionably to the development of the hospital and the health of the residents of the area. The development program of Emek Hospital continues, with the development momentum already in the field .
"Also, all the other programs are progressing, such as opening a new intensive care unit, new specialized units, adding manpower standards, equipping themselves with advanced technologies, and recruiting the best experts in their field. Regarding staffing positions, we will not discuss here."
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