Only a skeleton staff of nurses was on duty at public hospitals all over Israel yesterday in a protest move against the government’s decision to freeze the hiring of nurses and dismiss a certain percentage of them. Clinics did not function, surgery was postponed in many cases and many patients who had just undergone surgery were sent home because there were no nurses to take care of them.
The nurses demand that the economy measures of their expense be abandoned and the government seek to save money elsewhere. Health Minister Eliezer Shostak said the strike was unnecessary and unwarranted. He said the Cabinet’s decision to reduce staff covered all government departments and the nurses were not singled out.
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