Ground-breaking ceremonies were held Monday for a new children’s hospital whose sponsors say is designed for the physical and emotional needs of childhood, not simply to treat their ailments.
The $60 million medical center, which will serve children throughout the Middle East, will be erected on the grounds of Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva, largely through the generosity of New York realtor Irving Schneider, who has donated millions of dollars for the project.
Only at the last moment did striking doctors employed by Kupat Holim, Histadrut’s health care agency, withdraw their threat to disrupt the ground-breaking. They carried out such a threat last week at the ground-breaking for a $7.2 million medical research center, also to be erected on the Beilinson Hospital grounds.
Beilinson is one of 14 Kupat Holim hospitals in the grip of a partial strike by physicians. They are observing a reduced Sabbath schedule, performing only emergency medical procedures. So far, elective surgery has been canceled for some 400 patients and another 10,000 have been denied outpatient treatment.
Doctors are also on strike at hospitals run by the government or run jointly by the government and local municipalities. They issued an ultimatum Monday to escalate selective sanctions into a 24-hour, full-scale strike unless the Treasury agrees to resume wage negotiations by Tuesday night and cancels back-to-work orders issued to state-employed anesthesiologists.
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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.
