BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

extricate itself from the economic morass the hospital had fallen into. A good bond developed, and my wife Neomi found a common language with Bendheim’s and Yasselson’s wives.

I also was always concerned with the absence of a Clalit hospital in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. In fact, in my last conversation with Moshe Soroka at his house before he died, this very topic had been raised. Because of the evolving friendship with Shaare Zedek’s people, and the outstanding unsolved issues with Hadassah, Clalit leadership embarked on negotiations with Shaare Zedek. We reach a joint management agreement that entailed joint administration without any change in ownership, something we were not interested in, in any case. For a time, I was forced to hold up signing the agreement due to problem of Shaare Zedek’s SHARAP . 104 Following Hadassah’s lead, Shaare Zedek had also introduced a SHARAP for its senior physicians, on-site at the hospital. While the scope of the Shaare Zedek SHARAP was much smaller, in my view a SHARAP was a SHARAP ; and Clalit never viewed this arrangement in a positive light. But there was no other solution because the work agreement between the doctors on staff and Shaarei Zedek couldn’t be altered, and we really wanted an agreement. The agreement was signed to the satisfaction of both parties and much to the delight of Jerusalem’s mayor Teddy Kollek, who was also the head of the Labor Federation in Jerusalem, and others elsewhere in the halls of Clalit. The arrangement worked well for a decade until a financial crisis that occurred after I had left the sick fund prompted Clalit’s decision-makers to abandon the agreement. In the wake of this, the heads of Shaare Zedek turned to me, requesting I personally continue as a member of their board of directors; and I agreed willingly. Thus, I continued for years to sit on the governing board on a volunteer basis. At the outset of implementation of the joint management arrangement, the heads of Shaare Zedek requested that I recommend someone for director-general. I was searching for a suitable candidate among Clalit’s physicians when a colleague pointed out to me that there was a deputy department head in internal medicine at Beilinson hospital who had distinguished himself reorganizing the IDF’s Medical Corps; and, he was a ritually observant Jew. I immediately invited him for a talk. I was impressed with his suitability, both professionally and as a religiously observant person. With a nod of agreement from the doctor, I set up an interview for him with the heads of Shaare Zedek. His name was Prof. Jonathan Halevy. He had been a member of the Tel Aviv University medical school’s first graduating class and was an internist with specialization in liver diseases. At the time of this writing, Halevy has to his credit three decades of excellent management at the helm of Shaare Zedek Hospital. Bikur Holim Hospital in Jerusalem Bikur Holim Hospital was founded in the old city of Jerusalem in 1867 and moved to the new city in 1925. For years, I was aware of Bikur Holim’s situation. Its administration was controlled by an ultra-orthodox political party, and the hospital suffered from huge chronic deficits. The powers- that-be for years sought ways to solve its difficulties without much success. At some point, the moment of reckoning arrived, and for months the hospital couldn’t pay its staffs’ salaries. The Ministry of Finance turned to Shaare Zedek requesting they examine the possibility of taking Bikur Holim under their wing.

104 SHARAP : a Hebrew acronym for Private Medical Services introduced in public hospitals in Jerusalem beginning in the 1950s. From the 1920s, salaried physicians was the dominant form of medical practice. SHARAP was a half- way solution to keep senior physicians within the public hospitals by allowing them to receive private patients in dedicated SHARAP out-patient clinics after regular clinic hours. The objective was preventing the most seasoned salaried physicians from going into full-time private practice.

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