For the past four years, MK Yaakov Litzman has served as deputy health minister with ministerial authority. That means, even though he is not the minister, a post held by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, he runs the ministry. He simply does not accept the ministerial post in keeping with the decision of his party’s Moetzas Gedolei Torah, as the admorim do not wish to have a hand in the official ministerial non-halachic running of the state.

Hence, issues with the system are directed at Litzman and Labor party leader Avi Gabbai launched a scathing attack against Litzman and the failures of his tenure, citing the nation’s healthcare system is collapsing.

Gabbai stated, “If you turned on a television or read a newspaper in the last few months, you probably saw a hospital there, and if you visited a hospital, you would not need the newspaper for that, because after a decade of the Netanyahu administration neglecting the healthcare system, the damage is so obvious that it is simply impossible to continue to ignore it”.

Gabbai claims that, “What will change the reality in the health system is not another speech, but a real plan that will rebuild the system from its roots and rehabilitate it.”

“Our health system is collapsing because of management problems and priorities aimed at strengthening private medicine at public expense,” Gabbai added.

He adds how hospital administers in recent years have been warning of the imminent collapse, yet nothing is done and today, the healthcare system is in shambles. Gabbai warns that drastic measures are required to save the system and to prevent it from deteriorating further, especially with people living longer, which results in a growing geriatric population, citing that the nation’s hospitals are already sorely overcrowded.

“We must increase the number of hospital beds, physicians, internal departments and emergency rooms. However, simultaneously, we must develop the nursing insurance services and the entitlement to homecare hours extended. By expanding the treatment of the community, and expanding the rehabilitation systems, it will be possible to prevent many patients from reaching the hospital in the first place, thus alleviating the burden and providing better treatment for patients treated and/or admitted in the community”.

Gabbai added that a vigorous rehabilitation program for the healthcare system is required immediately.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)