Rather than negotiating with the union that represents Israeli medical laboratory staff, who have been warning about a lack of the staff needed to process coronavirus tests, the Health Ministry has opted to send IDF medics to labs.
Meanwhile, as the labs' workload is increasing as testing policies change and demand increases for serological tests to identify COVID-19 antibodies, shifts are not being extended and no new professional staff are being hired.
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"Rather than adding positions, they brought in cheap, untrained, unprofessional workers," one laboratory employee said.
"I don't know if they would let soldiers replace doctors or nurses due to a heavy workload," the employee added.
Israel's medical laboratories note that since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the number of tests for the virus has increased by several hundred percent, and in order to process them employees were asked to work longer hours and staff was recruited from other labs. In addition, the Health Ministry did not permit work on weekends.
On Thursday, at a meeting with Health Ministry officials to negotiate for extended hours and more staff, representatives of medical lab workers said that May 2020 had been "characterized by a lack of workers in the face of a huge workload."
Esther Admon, chairwoman of the Israel Association of Biochemists, Microbiologists, and Laboratory Workers, warned: "Bringing soldiers into laboratories just emphasizes what we have been shouting about for a long time: a lack of staff. Aside from that, some of the laboratory managers object stringently, because the risk is greater than the possible benefit.
"Any technical mistake is dangerous and could lead to erroneous results. At best, the government is conducting itself amateurishly, and at worst, putting lives in danger," Admon said.
The Health Ministry did not comment.
The IDF said that the army "as a whole and the Medical Corps, in particular, are enlisting to help national entities in the fight to contain the spread of coronavirus. In this case, medics from the Medical Corps are helping civilian laboratories, with full protective gear. The medics will help these labs process more tests as part of the assistance the IDF is providing to the civil sector with the goal of bolstering diagnoses of and locating corona cases.
"All medics have completed a military training course and are extensively trained in the tasks with which they will be helping, including theoretical and practical material. The Health Ministry, head of public health services, and the chief medical officer have approved the training content. In addition, all the medics who are helping are under the supervision of lab directors and expert staff. The IDF will continue to assist wherever it is needed and will do so while protecting those who serve," the military said.
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