Following the Thursday morning meeting with Maran HaGaon HaRav Yosef Sholom Elyashiv Shlita, Deputy Minister of Health R� Yaakov Litzman was instructed to remain firm in his position, not to move the bones at the site of the proposed fortified wing of Ashkelon�s Barzilai Hospital.

At this Sunday�s cabinet meeting, the deputy minister is expected to announce his alternate plan, to move the fortified wing to the nearby parking lot. The hospital administration and the nation�s body representing hospital directors oppose the plan too, one that they call too costly and lacking the logistical realities needed for an emergency room that is being designed to operate �under fire� during a wartime situation. One of the problems according to hospital officials would be the vulnerability when moving patients from the more distant structure to the units.

Litzman�s plan carries a NIS 270 million price tag and construction is set to begin next year, with a target completion date of 2014.

Undoubtedly, Litzman�s decision will spark controversy and the matter will in all likelihood find itself before the nation�s High Court of Justice.

(Yechiel Spira � YWN Israel)