26 August 2022; MEMO: Two hundred Israeli medical residents resigned yesterday in protest against the 26-hour shifts they are having to carry out.
The head of the Medical Residents Organisation (Mirsham), Dr. Rey Biton, said that some 200 medical residents are resigning in the first stage of the protest, with many more coming if the crisis is not solved.
Addressing the Israeli prime minister, ministers of finance, economy and health, Biton said: "Every week on Thursday at 2 p.m. further resignation letters will be filed in similar numbers … We very very much hope that before those letters take effect in some two weeks, you will wake up."
"The resignation letters being submitted right now with an aching heart and trembling hand are an indictment" against the government for failing to live up to its promises to end 26-hour shifts, Biton continued.
"You are leading to the worst health crisis in Israel's history. The government is not taking responsibility, only hiding behind the elections as though such an excuse can keep the disgrace away."
Last October, thousands of residents resigned in protest of the 26 consecutive hour shifts. The government then proposed a plan to shorten the shifts to 18 hours initially in ten hospitals.
The plan was to take effect on 1 April but was postponed until September 2023, citing procedural problems caused by the upcoming elections.
