Financial incentives as a governmental tool to bridge the medical manpower gap between Israel’s center and periphery

Table 1 Financial Incentive Program

Year	Specialties in need¹		Other specialties	Total Budget (NIS)	# requests
	Center	Periphery	periphery
	Grant (NIS)	Grant (NIS)	Grant (NIS)
2011–2014	300 k	500 k	300 k	715,000 k	1569
2015	211 k	331 k	–	75,000 k	374
2016	130 k (resident) 120 k (fellow)	216 k (resident) 200 k (fellow)	500 k² 216k³	75,000 k	210
2017	–	–	144k⁴ 288k⁵ 575k⁶	35,000 k
2018–2019	150 k	250 k	Specialty required by the hospital director: 250 k⁷; 500 k⁸; 750 k⁹ Family medicine 250 k¹⁰; 500 k¹¹ Psychiatric (center+periphery) 400k¹²; 300 k¹³; 150 k¹⁴	85,000 k

¹See text for detailed list of specialties in each year
² Available for a limited number of specialists, who moved to peripheral hospitals
³Physicians who started residency in specialties in need as defined by the hospital director
⁴Psychiatric specialist, 5 years’ experience or less
⁵Physicians who started residency in Family medicine (periphery only), or Geriatrics at Shoham Hospital
⁶ Specialists who moved to peripheral hospitals
⁷ Physicians who started residency in specialties in need as defined by the hospital director
⁸Specialists (less than 10 years’ experience), in specialties in need as defined by the hospital director
⁹ Specialists (10 years’ experience or over), in specialties in need as defined by the hospital director
¹⁰Family medicine residency in clinics located in socioeconomic clusters levels 2–5
¹¹ Family medicine residency in clinics located socioeconomic clusters level 1
¹² Hospitals with low staffing shortage
¹³ Hospitals with moderate staffing shortage
¹⁴ Hospitals with high staffing shortage

ISSN: 2045-4015