Interns take a stand as more medical residents resign
Additional medical residents join ranks of resigning coworkers while over 200 medical interns fail to show up at hospitals in show of support for the protest. 'Patients will suffer,' warns one doctor
Meanwhile, more medical residents executed their disqualified resignation and many hospital wards are finding it hard to cope without them.
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The interns have said that they are not willing to begin their hospital residencies. According to the interns, the short protest was intended to send a message to the public health system chiefs – the extra strain that hospitals will have to face if they also leave the public health system.
Residents at Tel HaShomer Medical Center (Photo: Moti Kimchi)
The Health Ministry stated Monday that 245 doctors failed to report to work, a number that has now grown, though the exact numbers remain unclear.
In spite of the mass walkout, the Health Ministry has so far avoided approaching the Labor Court with a petition to force the doctors to return to the hospitals. The Ministry has sent personal letters detailing the residents' legal status and warning them of the severity of their decision to resign.
Legal wrangling
Health Ministry Director General Professor Roni Gamzo warned Monday night that the resigning residents were breaking the law.
The hospitals believe that the wards are only capable of dealing with a shortage in residents for a few days. "I had two other residents in my ward who won't be working from this morning," said Dr. Itai Shavit, the head of the pediatric emergency department at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
He noted that should the situation continue, the patients would be the ones to suffer. "In the emergency room we save children every day. This is not something you can just leave; I don't understand this legal wrangling."
Ahiya Raved contributed to the report
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