In light of government silence, the Doctors Syndicate crisis has reached its peak. Doctors refused to provide service to patients crowding at hospital doors.

While hospital directors told Maan Agency that they had been officially informed that the hospitals would be evacuated as of this evening, the Doctors Syndicate urged patients to go for treatment in private hospitals.

Today, Tuesday, the percentage of doctors in government hospitals’ commitment to the strike announced by the Doctors Syndicate varied.

At the Palestine Medical Complex in the city of Ramallah, they observed a number of patients waiting inside the hospital facilities, and one of the women inside the hospital said that she had a “uterine cancer operation,” and she came more than once to the hospital to receive treatment, and they told her that there was no doctor for examination and treatment. This will push her to go to private hospitals despite her very difficult financial situation.

A reporter also met with an old man inside the hospital, and he told her that he needed an urgent x-ray, and the doctors inside the hospital refused to deal with his condition. There was also a school student in the emergency department who fell during the morning hours and there was no one to treat him inside the department.

As for Al-Hussein Governmental Hospital in the city of Bethlehem, the work inside the hospital was different, and during a reporter’s tour of a number of departments, a commitment was observed on the part of doctors and nurses to examine patients and provide the required treatments in the emergency, kidney, children’s and cancer departments.

In an interview with Ma’an TV with a random number of citizens, the citizens said that doctors are committed to providing all medical services since the morning hours, without any obstacles due to the doctors’ strike announced today, Tuesday.

For its part, the Medical Syndicate announced Tuesday afternoon that it would instruct all government hospital doctors to leave work today, Tuesday at six in the evening, in all Ministry of Health hospitals.

The union added in a statement that these measures are the result of the Ministry of Health’s disavowal of the government from what was agreed upon yesterday with the union to end the crisis.

The union called on sick citizens to go to private hospitals, and ambulance services not to go to government hospitals, and to transfer patients to alternative hospitals, and to transfer hospitalized patients in government hospitals to the private sector.

The union also warned against refraining from providing medical services in all public, private and private health sector facilities, in the event of harm to the union as a body and council of the union or any doctor affiliated with it

Source: Maan News Agency