Israel’s union of medical lab technicians on Wednesday threatened to stage a strike over a severe lack of manpower amid the ongoing coronavirus infection wave.
According to the union heads, the issue has been well known well before the start of the fifth Omicron-induced wave, and has since caused heavy overload in hospital labs all around the country.
The union heads also said the crisis has only been exacerbated by the fact that Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz has not met with them once since taking office.
Several hospital directors and lab heads, meanwhile, told Ynet the growing crisis in labs located in hospitals - which decipher results of blood, urine and stool tests as well as monitor malignant tumors - has caused a significant drop in the quality of care patients receive, due to the doctors’ inability to make sound decisions without lab results delivered on time.
According to one lab head, the shortage of employees is so severe, it leaves her lab "absolutely and uncontrollably backlogged every time at least two employees are sick at the same time."
One of the issues, another lab manager explains, lies in the fact that lab outputs have increased in recent years to 170%, while the number of staffers has effectively dropped.
“This results in a rapid turnover of staffers, who prefer to leave for other places shortly after being hired, while those that stay prefer to take on less shifts,” he added.
"We have been working with substandard manpower for years, it's no secret," said Dr. Yifat Alkalay, director of Ichilov Hospital’s immunology laboratory.
"We have dedicated a great deal of our manpower to the fight against COVID. We have been mobilizing people, pushing everyone to the edge with the sheer amount of COVID tests that need to be deciphered. The fifth wave has also sent a great number of workers into isolation, some of whom contracted COVID.
"For more than two years we have struggled to recruit new employees. People are quitting and we have no replacements,” said Alkalay, adding that her staffers are forced to balance between the high number of COVID tests and high priority tests from other departments, such as the ICU.
“It's a matter of life and death. The rest of the population is pushed to the fringes and gets no results… Our people are busy answering doctors’ calls all day, who are unable to make a medical decision because they did not receive the lab result they were waiting for.”
Esther Admon, chair of the union of biochemists and laboratory workers, emphasized that an all-out strike is off the table, adding, however, that lab workers will intensify their fight in the coming days.
“We cannot abandon the labs, it will only serve to hurt the patients… On the other hand, the patients are already suffering [from the current situation].”
“When the current COVID wave is over, we will have no choice but to take organizational measures,” added Admon.
The Health Minister’s Office said in response: "Minister Horowitz is in close contact with the union in relation to all groups of workers in the health system. No request for a meeting from the lab tech union was found in the minister's office”
“The minister, however, will be happy to meet with the representatives of this important group, which is an integral part in the ongoing fight against COVID.”
The minister's office added that about six months ago a beneficial agreement was signed with the lab tech union, “under which wage increases were given to certain ranks, grants to other ranks, and additional payments to all those involved in the fight against COVID.”