28.02.2013                      18.Adar. 5773

Streit um Hebammen:

Sheba opposes ruling against private midwives

The Health Ministry’s legal adviser, Mira Huebner, has aroused the wrath of Prof. Ze’ev Rotstein, the powerful director- general of the state-owned Sheba Medical Center – the country’s largest hospital – by stating that hiring a private midwife in a state-owned public hospital is forbidden.

Huebner issued her statement on Wednesday to heads of all government-owned hospitals, stating that these hospitals’ websites and publications have offered patients the opportunity to pay a fee to hire a private midwife, instead of just using the midwife who is on-duty when labor becomes intense. It is illegal, ruled Huebner, for patients in government hospitals or jointly owned government/ municipal hospitals to get preferential care via payment….