While there was hope last-minute talks would avert the strike, the talks broke down during the night and nurses in Israel walked off the job on Tuesday, beginning a nationwide strike to protest their working conditions and salaries.

The strike impacts hospitals around Israel, as well as kupot cholim (HMOs) and Health Ministry offices. Hospitals will operate on an emergency status, with minimum nursing staff.

After days of threatening, on Tuesday morning, July 23, 2019, at 7:00AM, the nurses announced the strike, impacting hospitals, kupot cholim and health ministry offices around the country. The Ministry of Health plans to turn to the labor court seeking a back-to-work order for the striking nurses.

Being on emergency status, all non-emergency surgical procedures are cancelled, as is the case with many out-patient procedures that were scheduled. Minimal teams will staff intensive care units, as is the case with dialysis, oncology, fertility units. Geriatric and psychiatric hospitals will operate on a limited format as well. In all hospitals, an emergency nursing staff will be set up as well as an exceptions committee to determine where and when the striking nurses may operate.

The Ministry of Health will provide emergency services only during the strike, such as addressing cases of rabies, meningitis or the outbreak of an illness. There will be no vaccinations for trips abroad, blood tests or other related services during the strike.

The nurses are protesting the intended cut in their wages as well as demanding additional staff be hired, to removal of beds from corridors because of the heavy burden on the hospitals then eventually, falls on them, the nursing staff.

The anger of the nurses also arose due to the reexamination of the accreditations that they claimed led to the burden of additional work and procedures, all falling on them. The accreditation test is a serious of tests conducted by the JCI (Joint Commission International) every three years. In light of the decision of the Ministry of Health, a hospital’s operations permit relies on the this test, and to pass it, the nurses claim, the management asks them to misrepresent the situation and meet unrealistic standards of professionalism and cleanliness when they claim there is not enough to manpower to meet the level desired.

The head of the nurses’ union, Ilana Cohen said, “The nurses in Israel cry out to the cry of the citizens of Israel, who are lying humiliated in the corridors under sub-conditions, with parents and children waiting desperately on endless lines and babies who do not receive vaccinations on time. The nurses in Israel request a true and immediate solution to enable them to provide proper and safe treatment to the citizens of Israel. No more committees, no more so-called solutions that have provided nothing over the years.

“The nurses will no longer lend a hand to working beyond the standards and license, to community and public health tasks, to procedures and controls without additional personnel and without a salary increase. The Ministries of Health and Finance are directly responsible for the severe overcrowding in hospitals and the corridors continue to remain full of patients and beds”.

The Health Ministry states that officials met with nursing representatives and many constructive suggestions were made to avoid the strike which will lead to harm to the patients.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)