The Health Ministry informed Israel’s hospitals and Kupot Cholim that they can begin hiring new doctors, nurses and other staffers ahead of the winter, as fears grow of the specter of a massive inflow of patients due to the coronavirus and the flu during the winter.

“Today, we will start allocating the 2,000 nurses, 400 doctors and 700 [other] medical staffers to the hospitals and health funds,” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Tuesday on a visit to a new children’s hospital in Holon.

“Following the work of Health Ministry staff, we will start informing hospitals and health funds today about the allocations…This reinforcement is extremely significant and is one of the largest in recent years.”

Although the Health and Finance ministries announced they would be providing funding for hiring new medical personnel two weeks ago, the hospitals were only given the go-ahead to start the hiring process on Tuesday.

About 450 of the 2,000 new nurses will be hired by Israel’s Kupot Cholim and Tipat Chalav centers [baby and early childhood centers], and the rest will be hired by hospitals around the country.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)