The Israel Medical Federation asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday to get involved in the national health crisis. In a letter to Netanyahu by Federation chairman Leonid Idelman cited this week's report by the State Comptroller that said patients were dying because of failures by the health system. Dr. Idelman noted that the doctors themselves warned a few months ago of a disaster due to a shortage of staff and hospital beds which cited a 2009 warning by the Health Ministry.
Idelman said the problem of hospital capacity could not be solved without addressing the staffing problem. The doctors say the two problems are behind their current sanctions, in addition to the question of doctor salaries.