Yacimovich: Sort out delayed pay for hospital workers
HMO has a deficit of more than NIS 1.3 billion.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHLabor Party chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich 370(photo credit: YONAH JEREMY BOB)
Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich called on Health Minister Yael German on Tuesday to take action to insure the paychecks of thousands of emoloyees of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem is delivered on time.For the past three months, HMO – which encompasses two university medical centers on Mount Scopus and in Ein Kerem – has deposited only half of salaries in the banks on time and the rest later in the month due to its shortfall in cash flow.The Labor leader said the lack of aggressiveness by the staff – nurses, doctors, technicians, administrative and maintenance worker – should not be regarded as patience, and since they have already done their work for the previous month, they must be paid.HMO has a deficit of more than NIS 1.3 billion.Yacimovich charged that HMO Director-General Avigdor Kaplan delays payment because he looks for the cheapest-possible source of credit to pay the bills. HMO, she charged, regards its dedicated staffers who save lives on a regular basis as “the lowest rung on the food chain.” Asked to comment, German’s personal spokeswoman said that she expected that the payment for October salaries will be available very soon, but that the minister did not have a long-term solution. The spokeswoman said that Hadassah suffers from underemployment – that workers are underutilized – as per bed, it has “twice the number of staffers as in Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.”The minister’s spokeswoman claimed that so far, HMO has “not presented a serious recovery plan to the Finance and Health Ministries” that would allow the Treasury to allocate funds to the financially troubled institution.
