Twelve thousand nurses went on strike this morning creating a serious curtailment of health care services in hospitals and clinics all over Israel. The dispute is over wages. The nurses are demanding increases that would cost the government IL 328 million now and an additional IL 200 million at a later stage. Negotiations broke down when the nurses’ union rejected a government offer amounting to 30-50 percent increases for nurses on night shifts including compensation for baby-sitters required by nurses who are working mothers.
The union insisted on across-the-board raises for nurses in all categories but the government balked, fearing a landslide of wage demands from other public employes, No deadline was set for ending the strike. It has not been endorsed by Histadrut. But the trade union federation has provided office space for a strike headquarters.
A survey by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency during the first day of the strike revealed the following conditions: In clinics and hospital institutions there are no nurses on duty. In emergency wards there is only one qualified nurse for every shift. Only two nurses are on city in maternity wards. Only one nurse is available in surgery heaters and only for urgent cases. Dialysis units nave not been affected but intensive care units are being operated with reduced staffs.
In all other wards only one nurse is on duty in each ward. In out-patient clinics only one nurse apiece is available for insulin injections and other urgent treatment. Only urgent cases are being treated in village and kibbutz clinics. Inoculations are not being given to persons traveling abroad except in the most essential cases.
DOCTORS STAGE SLOWDOWN
The results of the nurses’ strike are exacerbated by a work slowdown by physicians in public hospitals. The doctors, who support the nurses’ demands, made demands of their own for increased pay for night shifts and on days when hospitals are put on emergency alert. They said their slowdown would continue until the government agrees to negotiate. As a result, many clinics remain without a doctor on hand and all but urgent surgery has been postponed. Only one hospital in each region is open nights to admit accident victims or persons suddenly taken ill. (By Yitzhak Shargil)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
