BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

could not continue. Several days later, Begin headed a meeting of the cabinet where he ordered the Ministry of Finance to end the strike.

The Results of the Strike Did I err in seeing the strike as so grave? First of all, it is my duty to say that this strike caused something appalling. It led to poorer health status of some patients, failure to diagnose disease, and more. Researcher Yael Yishai wrote in her work, The Power of Expertise, “The doctors strike accelerated the phenomenon of under-the-table medicine, because each person needs to take care of themselves in whatever form that appears appropriate to them, and many times without taking into account ethical qualifications, work norms and work discipline, without which good medicine will not be provided.” 158 The aspects of this strike that led to such deep pain were, first, the grave blow to public medicine. Secondly, opening the floodgates to monetary greed in public medicine in the State of Israel. Thirdly, failure by close associates of mine to see what it would give birth to. These were people I appointed and was genuinely close to, and they believed, like me, in public medicine. But in the end, I was almost alone in this struggle. After the strike, I appointed a committee, headed by Prof. Lechaim Naggan who was the second dean of the school of medicine in Beer Sheva. It was called the “Committee to Reevaluate [Clalit] Sick Fund Services.” It was comprised of some of the best people in the system, and its recommendations were to continue the reforms we had dealt with prior to the strike. There were also other serious reexaminations of the situation in the health system, including those of the Beer Sheva medical school’s department of epidemiology and evaluation of health services, research that provided proof of the genuine medical damage to patients during the strike. Prof. Shimon Glick, the third dean of the Beer Sheva medical school wrote in the Journal of Medical Ethics in 1985: "There is little justification for strikes in general, still less for doctors' strikes.” He asks, “Should not doctors rather 'stand above the common herd' and set an example?” Furthermore, Prof. Glick feels that the whole idea of strikes in which a third and innocent party is deliberately punished in order to apply pressure on someone else is “a bizarre ethic indeed” and not to his knowledge justified under any ethical theory. 159 I want to add a closing personal comment about the strike: My hair never turned gray over decades. But if I have any gray hairs on my head, they were caused by the strike. This was a crisis that is hard even to describe. My Resignation as Clalit’s Director-General in 1988 There were several reasons for my resignation as director-general of Clalit. There was a man in Argentina whose name was Vito Dumas who, in 1942, wanted to sail the seas single-handed, passion-driven by this pursuit. At one particular point, I likened myself to Vito Dumas, in ‘staying the course’ in my responsibility for Clalit. The reasons behind the establishment of the Netanyahu Commission were the same reasons that led to my resignation: The situation was that there was an inadequate budget and no chance of getting an adequate budget. The Labor Federation was a poor source of support, and I didn’t receive enough support from the Prime Minister either. In the end analysis, it wasn’t in my power to bring about change in the situation. Adding to this, due to the strike of 1983, I was deeply disappointed by the physicians.

158 Yael Ishai, "Interest groups in Israel: a test of democracy", Am Oved, 1987. 159 Glick SM. “Physicians' strikes--a rejoinder", Journal of Medical Ethics . 1985;11(4):196-197. https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/11/4/196.full.pdf

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