Israel’s Nurses Union is threatening to declare a labor dispute and then strike if the Health Ministry does not immediately begin talks on staffing shortages and alleged breaches of its agreement with nurses. The report was aired Thursday on Kan News Radio 2 program “This Morning.”
According to the union, Israel is short about 1,200 nursing positions in total. More than 1,000 are missing in hospitals, and another 200 are lacking in school health services and Tipat Halav well-baby clinics.
In a sharply worded letter to Health Minister Haim Katz, first published Thursday morning, union representatives wrote that nurses in Israel are facing “continuous and growing overload” that does not match population needs. They said a “chaotic, harmful reality” caused by employers’ failures has placed an exceptional burden on nurses and that cynical exploitation of their dedication is causing physical, mental and professional burnout that harms patient care and public health.
The letter accused the Health Ministry of imposing limits and cuts on hiring “in bad faith and audacity,” and of “abandoning the nursing profession and trampling the nurses’ organization through privatization.” The union also said it had contacted the ministry repeatedly about these issues but received what it called blatant disregard.
The Health Ministry replied that it continually works to advance nurses, their status and professionalism, and to reduce their workload. It said it has created new roles, improved pay, advanced efforts to reduce staffing gaps and added hundreds of positions. The ministry added that the latest nurses’ wage agreement was signed in November 2023 with the Nurses Union and is valid until the end of 2027.
