New Report Reveals MRI and Elective Surgery Waiting Times Across Israel's Public Health System

The Israeli Ministry of Health has released its first comprehensive national report detailing waiting times for MRI scans and 19 types of elective surgeries in public hospitals across Israel. The data, covering 2024 and 2025 for MRIs and 2024 for surgeries, provides an in-depth look at actual waiting periods and compares performance among health funds and regions.

In 2025, Israel performed 570,076 MRI scans, an 8.8% increase from 523,512 in 2024. Despite the rise in volume, median waiting times from doctor referral to scan decreased from 37 to 35 days, and average waiting times fell from 57.3 to 55.1 days. The interval from health fund approval to scan remained stable with a median of 28 days. Regional disparities were noted, with the central district conducting 69.3 MRIs per 1,000 insured, the highest rate, while Jerusalem had the lowest at 37.2 per 1,000. Older adults (65+) underwent the most MRIs, at 132 per 1,000, compared to just nine per 1,000 children under 14. Women also had higher MRI rates than men.

Among health funds, Clalit performed the most MRIs (281,303), followed by Maccabi (177,991), Meuhedet (72,453), and Leumit (38,329). However, Maccabi led in MRI scans per 1,000 insured at 65.8, surpassing Clalit’s 56.7. Clalit had the highest proportion of insured aged 65 and over at 14.4%.

The report also examined waiting times for 19 elective surgeries in 28 general hospitals, measuring the time from surgery decision to operation. The shortest median waits were for breast removal and reconstruction (25 days) and colon resection (27 days). The longest waits were for nasal septum correction (89 days), tonsil and adenoid removal (78 days), knee replacement (70 days), and hernia repair (64 days). Notably, nearly half of septum correction patients waited over 90 days, compared to just 10.6% for colon resections.

The Ministry highlighted that Israel’s MRI waiting times are relatively short compared to countries with public health systems like Canada, Sweden, and Norway, despite having fewer MRI machines per capita. The number of MRI devices in Israel has grown from 10 in 2008 to over 70 in 2025.