30,000 Nurses, Non-medical Personnel End One-day Strike

— Some 30,000 nurses and non-medical personnel returned to work today after a one-day strike yesterday protesting a government-sponsored bill to create a national health service that would replace Histadrut’s Kupat Holim (sick-fund).

But the strike, which closed clinics and hospitals except for emergency and certain other vital cases, failed to prevent passage of the government’s bill in the Knesset last night by an impressive majority of 56-47. It has been referred to committee pending final action.

Doctors employed by Kupat Holim did not join the strike yesterday but threatened to walk out if the national health bill becomes law. They and other opponents of the measure contend it would result in poorer health services at high costs and the creation of a new oversized bureaucracy. Histadrut charged that the purpose of the bill is to weaken the Histadrut before the June 30 election. Histadrut fears that if Kupat Holim is replaced by a national health service it will lose membership because many members belong to Histadrut for the health care and other privileges they receive. Yeruham Meshel, Secretary General of Histadrut, charged that this was the intention of the Likud government and said Histadrut has only just begun to fight.

The Knesset vote crossed party lines. The National Religious Party, a coalition partner, voted with the Labor Alignment against the government’s measure. But the leftist Shinui and other small opposition factions supported it. There were four abstentions.

Meanwhile, patients turned away from hospitals and clinics yesterday were angered by the strike. Although many sympathized with the strikers’ aims they said other ways should have been found to protest.