The volunteers affiliated with Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital are trying to pick up the slack as much as possible as doctors continue working on a limited Shabbos schedule. State officials fear the medical center will crumble as the whopping fiscal dept continues to grow with no relief in sight.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid announced he will not permit the major medical center to go under. Doctors on Sunday, 9 Adar I held a two-hour strike demanding government intervention to bring an end to the crisis. Many hospitals around Israel held the two-hour strike in solidarity with their colleagues in Hadassah. The Hadassah Medical Organization, which runs both hospitals, Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem, submitted an urgent petition to the District Court seeking to stop legal proceedings against the hospital.

Yediot Achronot reports some of the reasons for the staggering debt in the medical center, citing a current debt of 300 million NIS and an accumulative debt of 1.3 billion NIS. How did the hospital accumulate the debt? Yediot reports on a few areas that paint a picture of fiscal irresponsibility and a lack of management and oversight.

Give Out Promotions:

One of the problems is traced to a past decision permitting the labor union to advance employees unilaterally, without administration approval. While there are only 400 management positions, there are 900 employees receiving management salaries. In short, 500 employees are being paid as managers without the extra duties or responsibilities.

Overtime:

Employees receive a standard overtime package when in essence; most only work the standard week, without overtime, costing the hospital 38.8 million NIS annually.

On-Call Duty:

There are doctors who must remain on-call as is the case with any major hospital. For some reason, Hadassah management agreed to place administrative personnel on ‘on-call’ status too. Yediot reports it appears 95% of the administrative overtime is unnecessary, to the tune of 32.9 million NIS annually. But this is not all. Senior administration receives a higher ‘on-call’ pay costing 29.5 million annually while Hadassah admits there is no gain by this added on-call status.

High Salaries:

Some of the hospital’s x-ray technicians earn astronomical salaries, reaching 100,000 NIS monthly. After drastically reducing their salaries, they now receive 25,500 NIS monthly. The average wage of a housekeeping supervisor is 19,000 NIS monthly. A senior office assistant brings in 18,000 NIS. No explanation is given for the exorbitant salaries.

Free Medical Care for Employee Families:

While all workers in Israel pay health tax and have kupat cholim (HMO), for some reason, Hadassah has agreed to provide free medical care for the employees and their families instead of processing them through the nation’s HMOs. 25,000 current and past employees and their families are treated on the hospital’s expense.

Private Care is Extremely Costly:

Some surgeons are performing private surgeries during the morning hours when they are supposed to be treating regular kupat cholim patients, permitting them to receive double salaries during that time at the expense of the general public which does not pay for private service. In addition, the hospital complains it only receives less than 20% of the private fee charged for private service by surgeons.

Over half of the staggering 1.3 billion NIS debt is attributed to salaries and other payments to employees. If the court agrees to freeze the clock, the hospital will have an additional three months before those seeking payment can take legal action against the hospital.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photos: Moshe Mizrachi, Chadashot 24)