CC by Jared-Rodriguez, truthout.orgACRI and the initiators of the “physicians’ letter” expressed their satisfaction at the Israel Medical Association announcement to physicians that the Private Medical Service (PMS) initiative is off the negotiations agenda.
ACRI and the physicians, who called to take the PMS issue off the negotiations agenda, welcomed a statement by Dr Leonid Edelman, Israel Medical Association (IMA) chairman, according to which the striking doctors no longer demand PMS. In a statement published on the IMA internet site, Edelman explicitly stated that: “It should be made unequivocally clear that the PMS was not raised among our demands.”
According to “physicians’ letter” signatories Dr’s Dani Filk and Nadav Davidoviz, “We as IMA members support the physicians’ struggle for the public health system. Introducing the IMA into public hospitals might undermined the principles of the National Health Insurance Act and seriously harm the entire health system and the public’s trust in it. Introducing that goal into the negotiations diverted the discussions from its main issues and weakened the public sympathy. The fact that PMS is no longer a goal of the current struggle is a good thing.”
Rami Adut, Head of ACRI’s Right to Health Project, said that “ACRI, human rights activists, social activists, and the physicians will continue struggling against the Private Medical Service. We call on the Finance Ministry to meet the physicians’ demands for the benefit of a quality public health system, and for us all. The public health system must be bolstered through raising salaries, adding positions, and encouraging physicians to work in the peripheries, but certainly not through privatizing it.”
