Following years of discussion the dream has become a reality, a medical school program that will train the next generation of military physicians, hoping to meet the critical shortage of physicians serving in the IDF.

Today, Sunday (Oct. 18th), with the opening of the semester of the nation’s universities, the new program gets underway, with the pioneering class reporting, a reality that the military hopes in a number of years will alleviate the dire shortage of combat and non-combat physicians in the IDF.

50 IDF students will join their fellow classmates, civilian med school students, but the IDF students will be responsible for additional material – including courses addressing medicine in the military.

Upon completion of their medical training, the students will be required to ‘pay back’ for their education by serving five or six years in the IDF. Chief medical officer Brigadier-General Nachman Ash explained the students, who were hand-picked for the program, will enjoy free tuition as well as expenses paid, including dormitory facilities and limited living expenses.

To date, the IDF enjoyed limited success in attracting physicians into the military, unable to compete with salaries and benefits offered in the civilian sector. The military has been trying for years to establish its own medical school program, which has met with much opposition, including senior members of Israel’s medical community, who feared the standard would be lowered to accommodate the IDF’s pressing need for physicians. Despite the opposition, today, the dream becomes a reality.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)