Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman spoke at a conference on Transparency in Health in Tel Aviv and addressed the boiling issue of the doctors’ resignation from Hadassah, accusing the doctors of “destroying the health system.”

“I would like to address the burning issue these days, the subject of Hadassah,” said the Health Minister, adding that the only thing that interested me was the children, “I did not look at anyone who came out against me or at the signs and the buses. What interests me is only the children”.

Litzman was referring to the resignation of the doctors who ran the pediatric hemo-oncology unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, an occurrence that has gained national notoriety.

“I instructed the Hadassah Director-General Rothstein that what the doctors will receive what they are asking for towards returning the situation to what if was before the crisis. Rothstein received my guidance. Unfortunately, the doctors did not accept this. There is no Jerusalem without Hadassah and we saved Hadassah. Since Rothstein is in Hadassah, the activity in the hospital has risen above expectations, and I reiterate that there will not be a department at Shaare Zedek. This is a professional statement by the Health Ministry and not mine, “Litzman said emphatically.

“I am personally shocked by what I read this morning that talks are ongoing to move the unit to Shaare Zedek Hospital. It’s hard for me to think that senior doctors will try a putsch against Hadassah,” he said, adding “trying to take the workers, social workers, nurses and administrators and destroy the department. It’s something unthinkable. This is the destruction of the health system. I will join in examining this conduct between the doctors and Shaare Zedek”.

Shaare Zedek released a statement to the media Wednesday morning based on these reports, calling on the sides to work out differences for the good of the patients, adding Shaare Zedek will not be opening a hemo-oncology clinic. This statement seems to attempt to allay Litzman’s fears that the unit will leave Hadassah.

Litman added that at a Knesset Medical Committee meeting he suggested negotiations with the doctors who resigned but this was rejected by them. They subsequently meet with the director-general of the ministry. Today, I understand that they have not even bothered to respond [to him]”.

Despite Litzman’s claims, the minister continues calling on them to return to Hadassah. He calls on them to return for the sake of the children. He promises to keep his word to meet their demands for the good of the children.

The senior physicians after they could not prevent Prof. Rothstein from combining the adult and pediatric hemo-oncology unit, which sparked the controversy. The doctors who resigned insist the combining of the units is to the detriment of the children, while Rothstein insists this is not so.

The doctors insist they are concerned with the well-being of the children only, while for Hadassah, it is about cutting costs. The doctors add that while the personnel in the adult unit are capable, they are not at all familiar with the correct protocol and treatment for the pediatric unit, especially the nurses and therapists. They explain adult unit personnel cannot properly treat the children.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)