The Health Ministry has released its first comprehensive national reports on waiting times in Israel's public healthcare system, providing detailed data on MRI scans and 19 types of elective surgeries performed in general hospitals. The reports, based on MRI data from 2024-2025 and surgical data from 2024, offer the clearest picture to date of how long patients wait for key medical services.
The report shows that demand for MRI scans continued to rise, with 570,076 examinations performed in 2025, up 8.8% from 523,512 the previous year. Despite the increase, waiting times remained stable or improved. The median time from a physician's referral to the scan fell from 37 days to 35 days, while the average waiting time dropped from 57.3 days to 55.1 days. The average time from scheduling an appointment to the scan also declined to 41.1 days, compared with 45.2 days in 2024, while interpretation of results took an average of 9.3 days.
Significant regional differences remain. The Central District recorded the highest MRI usage, with 69.3 scans per 1,000 insured residents, while Jerusalem had the lowest rate at 37.2 scans per 1,000. Most Jerusalem residents-94%-underwent their scans within their home district, compared with just 65% of residents in northern Israel. Older adults accounted for the highest MRI usage, with 132 scans per 1,000 people aged 65 and over, while women underwent scans more frequently than men.
Among Israel's health funds, Clalit performed the largest number of MRI scans in 2025 with 281,303, followed by Maccabi, Meuhedet, and Leumit. However, when adjusted for the number of insured members, Maccabi recorded the highest rate of MRI use, with 65.8 scans per 1,000 members, ahead of Clalit, Meuhedet, and Leumit.
The report also examined waiting times for 19 publicly funded elective procedures across 28 general hospitals. Breast lumpectomy and reconstruction had the shortest median waiting time at 25 days, followed by colon surgery at 27 days, vitrectomy at 29 days, head surgery at 30 days, and gallbladder removal at 36 days.
The longest waits were recorded for nasal septum surgery, with a median of 89 days, followed by tonsil and adenoid surgery at 78 days, knee replacement at 70 days, and ear tube insertion at 64 days. Hip replacement patients waited a median of 57 days, while thyroid removal and cataract surgeries had median waits of 56 and 50 days, respectively. Nearly half of patients undergoing nasal septum surgery waited more than three months, compared with just over 10% of patients receiving colon surgery or breast lumpectomy and reconstruction.
The Health Ministry noted that Israel's MRI waiting times compare favorably with those of countries such as Canada, Sweden, and Norway, despite Israel having fewer MRI machines per capita. It also highlighted the significant expansion of imaging capacity over the past decade and a half, with the number of MRI machines increasing from just 10 in 2008 to more than 70 in 2025.