Israeli public hospital heads warn of bankruptcy, urge gov't help

The country’s public general hospitals are submerged in a “severe budget crisis” and are being forced to cut their services, hospital directors-general warned the Health Ministry.

Late Monday night, they demanded an urgent meeting with Health Minister Moshe Arbel and his director-general, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, to discuss the situation.

“The hospital corporations will become bankrupt organizations, resulting in layoffs in staff, longer queues for treatment that are already long, and a reduction in the quality of services,” they wrote to the ministry.

As it is, the public hospitals are already overwhelmed by a shortage of doctors and nurses and widespread talk among many hundreds – even thousands – of physicians that they are seriously considering relocation abroad due to the government’s judicial reform plans.  

One of the main reasons for the expected collapse of the system, they said, was the weakening of the shekel versus the dollar, as most purchases in hospitals of equipment, medications, and more are made in foreign currency.

Hospital expenses and deficits

This leads to increased costs of tens of millions of shekels in expenses and deficits in the amount of tens to hundreds of millions of shekels.

According to the KAN public broadcaster, the directors – who are worried most about public hospitals in the North and South, pleaded with Arbel and Bar Siman Tov two months ago for a meeting, but they were ignored.