Responding to a query, Health Minister (Shas) Rabbi Chaim Amsellem stated an emergency clinic may not demand payment on Shabbos. The query was prompted by report of a case where an emergency clinic refused to treat an infant when the Shomer Shabbos parent explained he cannot make payment on the Holy Day.

The minister added that no emergency clinic may refuse treatment to anyone due to payment issues, and doing so is a violation of the law.

In Jerusalem for example, the Terem Clinic located in the MDA Building treats anyone who arrives on Shabbos, leaving payment issues for motzei Shabbos.

The Terem chain of clinics were established by the late Dr. David Appelbaum, HY”D, who together with his daughter Nava, HY”D, was murdered in a suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem’s Germany Colony neighborhood.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)