Former Minister of Health Aryeh Deri signed a coalition agreement according to which the health system will receive an additional 6 billion shekels, but the health system warns that in practice the budget of the Ministry of Health will not only not increase, but will even be cut by about 5 billion.
"We are in a time of national emergency," warns the Union of Hospital Directors in a letter they sent to Finance Minister Bezalel Smutritz.
Those around Deri said that the issue is still under discussion and it is too early to comment on the cut.
The letter was written by Prof. Arnon Afek, Director of the Sheba General Hospital, and Dr. Eitan Wertheim, Director of Beilinson, the heads of the Association of Hospital Directors.
In the letter they stated: "Instead of dealing with ways to strengthen the public health system, we predicted nothing less than the collapse of the system. The health system deals with daily survival. In view of promises of a significant budget increase of 6 billion shekels, we can only express our great astonishment that the expected budget will actually be approved for the benefit of all The health system may be even lower than the current budget."
Former Minister of Health Aryeh Deri, photo: Gideon Markowitz
The administrators warn in the letter: "How can we take care of the sick? How can we prevent the founders of the state, our senior citizens, our elders who need us, from lying helpless in the corridors of the wards due to a lack of beds and personnel. How can we strengthen public healthcare in the social and geographic periphery without resources?"
The hospital managers are calling on Minister Smotrich to prevent the cut and "save the public health system".
As I recall, Deri presented a comprehensive plan to strengthen the public health system when the government was formed.
And a huge addition of NIS 5.8 billion to the health system as part of the coalition agreements.
The addition was intended, among other things, to expand the options for patients to choose hospitals, ease the prescription of medications in Israel, add 400 hospital beds per year and build two new hospitals in Beer Sheva and Kiryat, increase the total number of medications, strengthen the health insurance funds, and more.
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