IDF Chief Medical Officer Brigadier-General Nachman Ash is truly concerned over the critical shortage of physicians in the military, well-aware of the fact that the condition will take years to rectify. In a new record-breaker, in three combat battalions, there is no physician, and paramedics are doing their best to fill the void.

The army’s efforts to enlist students into its ‘Atuda’ study/service program to become physicians has yielded limited success and it does not come close to showing promise of eliminating the shortage of doctors.

IDF officials explain that while interest in the Atuda program is considerable, the medical schools in the country have raised the bar and admission to military personnel is not guaranteed. YWN recently reported (HERE) that Ash has called on medical schools to accommodate military students but they are unwilling to create a double standard, compelling Ash towards promoting an IDF medical school.

At present, the bottom line is substandard medical care for combatants. There must be a minimum of one physician per combat battalion but currently, this is not the case. Experience shows that battalions with physicians and not paramedics have a lower dropout rate.

Sadly, IDF efforts to attract medical school candidates only yielded two responses, despite an attractive NIS 50,000 sign-on bonus, a vehicle and the IDF commitment to cover the cost of a resident specializing in a specific field.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)