Photo Credit: Nati Shohat / Flash 90

The Israel Nurses Association (INA) threatened a general strike on Sunday over what it claims are worsening work conditions caused by the coronavirus crisis.

“We are collapsing,” INA head Ilana Cohen wrote in a letter to Finance Minister Israel Katz. “If we do not immediately receive extra manpower, we will strike,” reported Ynet.

Advertisement




Cohen also complained that hospitals purchased ventilators, “but did not train nurses to operate them.”

The reopening of hospitals’ coronavirus wards as a result of a second-wave outbreak, emergency rooms filled with COVID-19-infected patients and the quarantine of many nurses all have exacerbated the shortages that nurses say they already faced before the start of the pandemic.

According to the Health Ministry, seven hundred and fifty-seven nurses were in quarantine as of July 12, as compared with 124 exactly one month ago, which is an increase of more than 500 percent.


Share this article on WhatsApp:
Advertisement

SHARE
Previous articleSteinitz Calls for 10-Day National Lockdown
Next articleIsrael’s Health Ministry Warns: No Escaping Second Lockdown
www.JNS.org is an independent, non-profit business resource and wire service covering Jewish news and Israel news for Jewish media throughout the English-speaking world.