Respect for the rule of law
The hospitals mourned and ground to a halt. On Saturday, I accompanied a patient who required emergency treatment in a department in a hospital in central Israel. The head of the department, an esteemed professor, was treating cases that would ordinarily be the responsibility of the medical residents. Next to him, a specialist helped out. It was embarrassing.
The professor said there are six residents in the department. Four have resigned. One remains. The sixth just showed up and remains on his shift, but at the moment the benefits of his presence are minimal. The professor does not support breaking the rules of the game, he explained to me after treating a patient as a junior doctor, but if people like the residents have reached a point where they shirk all discipline, someone in this country has to step in and explain why.
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After a weekend of for and against, while listening to doctors (whose positions are not uniform) and government representatives (likewise), it is quite clear that the decision is not between black and white [expected outcomes]. I believe that, despite the doctors' denials, if the senior doctors' service in the private medical system were cleared up, the health care system could return to proper functioning.
The agreement has two vital elements: a significant raise (relatively speaking) for residents, while reducing the amount of night shifts they will need to perform, as well as significant prioritizing for those who choose to work in the country's periphery. For this reason, the heads of local councils in the Negev and Galilee are urging Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz to adhere to the existing agreement and refuse to renegotiate.
The residents seek to force the government to reopen the agreement [that was signed in August between the Israel Medical Association and the Finance Ministry], but such a move on the government's part would lead other sectors in the economy to challenge agreements that were reached with them.
At around midnight, the residents said they would respond to the High Court on Sunday and tell the judges that they are prepared for additional talks with the Finance Ministry, mainly out of regard for the rule of law. These talks will have a purpose if two conditions are filled: The first is that the subjects discussed by the residents be the main and exclusive subjects under discussion, and not the hidden interests of senior doctors. The second is that the Finance Ministry insert a clause into the nine-year agreement that allows for reassessment once or twice during the lengthy time period. Lowering the rhetorical flames is necessary if we want to repair the relations between the two sides. If not, there will be no avoiding a head-to-head confrontation, and an entire nation that has no shortage of concerns will experience the true meaning of chaos.
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