Deputy Minister of Health Yitzhak Rafael and Jerusalem Mayor Mordechai Ish-Shalom cabled today to the national headquarters of Hadassah in New York protesting against a statement issued by the Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel which has served notice that it will dismiss the staffs of its city health services.
The notice was served after the Ministry and the municipality had refused to take over the financial responsibility of those services, as proposed by Hadassah.
The dispute concerns the responsibility for providing an annual budget of 1, 000, 000 pounds ($333, 333) for Hadassah’s city health services, which the organization plans to relinquish next April 1. Today, the Hadassah Medical Organization sent dismissal notices, effective April 1, to 160 members of the medical and administrative staffs of clinics, welfare and school hygiene and dental services.
The Ministry of Health termed the action “absolutely unwarranted and one-sided.” The Ministry reiterated its own counter-proposal, whereby Hadassah would relinquish responsibility for those services in April of 1964, instead of this coming April. The Ministry had proposed also that, for five years after April 1, 1964, Hadassah would provide half of the maintenance costs of the services.
Dr. Kalman Mann, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization here, said that the Ministry’s proposal had been forwarded to headquarters in New York, where it had been rejected. Dr. Mann emphasized that Hadassah’s policy is to utilize its limited funds in pioneering “growth point” projects. He said that when there was no real municipality or Health Ministry, Hadassah was willing to undertake responsibility for the city’s health services. Now, however, he held, “the situation is different.”
According to Dr. Mann, Hadassah is ready to contribute half of the maintenance costs of the services for the first year and one-third for the second and third years.
The Jerusalem municipality has declined to assume any financial responsibility on the contention that its treasury policy does not permit it to raise taxes. The Ministry of Health is opposed to taking over local services, although it is willing to help. It appeared today that the Israeli Treasury will have to take over the financial responsibility if the local health services are to be continued.
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