Zeal to heal

I cannot agree more with “Gov’t approves fast- tracking immigrant medical professionals’ licensing” ( November 22) regarding the difficulty of getting Israeli medical licenses.

After several years of a very successful medical practice in the United States, I made a firm decision to come on aliyah. One of the first issues I attended to was a medical license. It took nine years plus the help of an attorney and a physician friend of mine to finally get my Israeli license. A big part of the problem was that the Israeli licensing office does not respond to application questions by phone, mail or visit. By the time it was finally approved, I was approaching retirement. We came on aliyah in any case.

Recently, I responded to a government call for retired doctors to volunteer to help with COVID- 19 work in the hospitals. To date I have received no reply from them. The government is still as inefficient as when I came on my first visit in 1961. It took a full day then to renew my visitor’s visa.

Doctors who are new olim face a major problem entering the medical labor force: Hospitals expect the doctor to be fluent in Hebrew from Day 1. In addition, the government does not allow doctors over 65 to join subsidized courses in medical Hebrew. Standard ulpanim are insufficient for this purpose. Clearly, it is dangerous for a doctor who is not fluent in Hebrew to communicate irregularly with fellow healthcare workers. Israel is getting fully trained and experienced physicians ready to contribute but is unwilling to ease the entry of senior doctors in particular into the labor force.