Nurses set to strike nationwide

Nurses across the country intend to begin striking indefinitely in hospitals, clinics and public healthcare facilities on Wednesday as a protest against the violence raging in the health system. The nurses union announced on Monday nurses are striking “in response to the government’s incompetence in handling the extreme violence in the healthcare system and the failure in implementing the recommendations of the committee to minimize violence in the health care system, which were published nine months ago.”

In recent years, several violent incidents have been reported in hospitals and clinics against nurses, doctors and security personnel, such as being severely beaten by family members of patients. In March 2017, a nurse was set on fire and died of her injuries.

As part of the strike, the nursing staff will not be working in ambulatory services including clinics, facilities and outpatient departments. Various hospital departments and operation rooms will be working in limited, Shabbat-protocol capacity. In intensive care units including neonatal, delivery rooms, dialysis, oncology and fertility clinics, nurses will be working in limited capacity as well. All hospitals will have a team of nurses on call for emergencies.

“The nurses of Israel have decided that their lives are not expendable,” said Ilana Cohen, chairwoman of the National Association of Nurses. “We have therefore declared a full strike. Until operative measures are taken to resolve the insufferable workload and to protect the medical and supporting healthcare staff, the nurses shall not give in.”