Following the Thursday morning meeting with Maran HaGaon HaRav Yosef Sholom Elyashiv Shlita, Deputy Minister of Health R’ Yaakov Litzman was instructed to remain firm in his position, not to move the bones at the site of the proposed fortified wing of Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital.

At this Sunday’s cabinet meeting, the deputy minister is expected to announce his alternate plan, to move the fortified wing to the nearby parking lot. The hospital administration and the nation’s body representing hospital directors oppose the plan too, one that they call too costly and lacking the logistical realities needed for an emergency room that is being designed to operate ‘under fire’ during a wartime situation. One of the problems according to hospital officials would be the vulnerability when moving patients from the more distant structure to the units.

Litzman’s plan carries a NIS 270 million price tag and construction is set to begin next year, with a target completion date of 2014.

Undoubtedly, Litzman’s decision will spark controversy and the matter will in all likelihood find itself before the nation’s High Court of Justice.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)