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IllustrationFlash 90

State-funded health clinics in eastern Jerusalem are employing a number of Arab healthcare providers bearing falsified medical licenses, an investigative report by Channel 2 revealed.

According to the report, which was aired Sunday evening, a large number of doctors from the Arab sector with no actual qualifications or medical training have been hired by clinics across eastern Jerusalem.

The fake doctors were found at four different publicly-funded healthcare clinics, operated indirectly by Meuhedet, Maccabi, Clalit, and Leumit. While most clinics in Israel are operated directly by the country’s four registered healthcare providers, the Health Ministry authorized the opening of Arab franchises for each in eastern Jerusalem.

Members of the four clinics’ medical staffs included taxi drivers and truck drivers among others who were listed as doctors despite having absolutely no medical training whatsoever.

As part of Channel 2’s investigation, an undercover reporter with no training was able to find employment at all four of the clinics in question.

“Unfortunately at these healthcare centers the entire staff brings in people with licenses; they bring in doctors without licenses, and they bring nurses without licenses and X-ray machine operators without licenses,” one doctor in eastern Jerusalem told Channel 2.

“I saw a male nurse who was working as a family doctor, and was surprised to find him working in a hospital as a nurse. I asked him if he was a nurse or a doctor. He told me that ‘In the morning I’m a nurse, in the evening I’m a doctor.’”

In response to the report, the Health Ministry pledged to investigate the issue and remove unqualified employees at the clinics.

“The Health Ministry finds the results of the investigative report deeply distressing. Despite the shortage of doctors in eastern Jerusalem, we cannot allow unqualified individuals to provide healthcare at public clinics in Israel. The ministry will form an investigative team to examine the issue to ensure that this does not happen in the future.”