The Head of the Nurses' Union, Ilana Cohen, announced Monday that the nurses would be striking for 24 hours to protest lack of room for patients in hospital wards and an insufficient number of nurses to tend for them.
The Finance Ministry said in response that "negotiations with the Chairperson of the Nurses' Federation, Ilana Cohen, went on all night. Despite efforts by the Deputy Finance Minister and representatives of his office to find solutions that would alleviate the burden on the nurses, an agreement has not yet been reached and the nurses decided to strike today. Negotiations will continue today, as well, in order to reach solutions and end the strike as soon as possible."
Ilana Cohen told Arutz Sheva that if the government does not add nurses' positions to the current array, the strikes will only get worse. She said that wards that are supposed to hold up to 38 patients are forced to hold 50, and that the number may soon grow to 60. "We decided to say 'no more,'" she explained. "They do not deserve to sit like homeless people outside the rooms, near the kitchen."
"This is a national crisis and we need to see how we can find a solution," she added. "More people should study the profession and more of those in it should stay in it."