After 13 years as deputy director-general of the Health Ministry, Prof. Itamar Grotto has announced his resignation, following a “particularly demanding year during which I served on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus.”
In his letter to the Health Minister and director-general of the Ministry, Grotto wrote that although “there have been disagreements along the way … prevailing over them throughout the years has been a common desire to … do our very best for the welfare of the public.”
However, speaking to Channel 13 News on Sunday evening, Grotto clarified that the “common desire to serve the public” was shared among those working in the health care system, to the exclusion of politicians.
“I leave my position extremely frustrated,” he said. “The government refuses to adopt so many of our recommendations, but when things go wrong, we are blamed.”
He added that the past year had been “extremely intense. Things were happening so fast, and of course I made mistakes, but I learned from them and didn’t make the same mistakes twice.”
Despite his hard feelings about clashes with the political echelon, however, Grotto stressed that his decision to resign was unrelated. “I want to take a break and then move on to new things,” he said. “The system needs an injection of fresh blood from time to time.”