from Haaretz:

Hadassah doctors in row with U.S. benefactors over chief’s resignation

Doctors at Hadassah University Hospitals have proposed that the Hadassah women’s organization appoint a mediator in the disagreement between them and the organization over keeping the hospitals’ director at his post.

In recent weeks the doctors’ and nurses’ organizations have been organizing protests against the decision of the women’s group not to extend Mor-Yosef’s appointment at least until March 2012, the completion date of the new hospital tower at Ein Karem.

The chairman of Hadassah’s department heads committee, Prof. Raphael Udassin, together with the chairman of the committee representing Hadassah’s 250 senior physicians, Prof. Avinoam Reches, proposed a number of mediators, including former Jewish Agency director Sallai Meridor, former Tel Aviv University president and Israeli ambassador to the United States Itamar Rabinovich, and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman.

The women’s organization has not responded to the call to appoint a mediator.

In a letter to hospital personnel, Udassin and Reches said they intend to change the policy of Hadassah doctors participating in donors’ conventions and would work to change the structure of the board of directors, whose 15 members are mostly foreigners.

The committee also said it would hold meetings during work hours to explain its position and draft support.

Reches recently said the committee would delay its signature on renewal of economic recovery agreements with management of the women’s group. As part of the agreements, Hadassah’s senior physicians had loaned the hospital a percentage of their salaries during the global economic slump, which hit the women’s organization especially hard.