The government on Sunday was set to approve a reform that would fast track the immigration of thousands of Jewish doctors to Israel and their integration into the country's health system amid an ongoing domestic row between officials and medial interns.
The motion, tabled by Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, is set to assist the Jewish state's hospitals with their severe manpower shortage - which it had suffered from even before the pandemic.
The vote is set to take place just days after more than 2,500 medical interns resigned en-masse in protest of the 26-hour shifts they are forced to work. Representatives of the 2,590 young doctors arrived at the Health Ministry's offices in Tel Aviv and submitted their resignations letters which are set to come into effect within two weeks' time if the issue is not resolved.
Israel has a rate of 3.1 doctors per 1,000 patients, below the OECD average of 3.3 per 1,000 people, according to a 2018 report by the Health Ministry.
Israel also has just five nurses per 1,000 people, the fourth-worst rate among 34 countries in the OECD, a grouping of developed countries. Israel has 6.8 medical graduates per 1,000 people compared to an OECD average of 12.1; just 2.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared to a rate of 3.6 in the developed world; and a hospital occupancy rate of 93.8 percent, second-highest among OECD countries and far above the average of 75.5 percent, according to the report
According to the Jewish Agency data, some 3,000 medical professionals are in the process of making Aliyah - most of them from the former Soviet Union, U.S., Canada, France and Argentina, but Israeli authorities are not willing to accept all of them so rapidly.
According to Tamano-Shata's reform, a special cross-ministerial committee will be established to be tasked with formulating a job program for potential immigrants in the medical and nursing professions, as well as promote effective and rapid employment solutions.
The motion will also see the establishment of an online platform in English, Russian, French and Spanish, through which immigrants will be able to submit their application documents for licensing in medical professions, including nursing, even before immigrating to Israel.
In addition, the Aliyah and Integration Ministry will look into starting specialized Hebrew courses in the immigrants' countries of origin to help with the language barrier and expedite any additional courses or forms needed for them to regain their license in Israel.