JERUSALEM - Israelis faced the prospect of losing proper hospital care throughout the country after more than 300 medical residents stayed home from work Monday in protest of the government's alleged unwillingness to improve wages and working conditions.

The National Labor Court tried to prevent the resignations from becoming formal until a new agreement could be hammered out but many of the interns, who work in some of the country's busiest hospitals, rejected the court order.

The interns' protest was triggered last month in the aftermath of a comprehensive new medical labor agreement between the government and the doctors union. The interns maintain the agreement did not satisfactorily address their interests.

The union's agreement with the government was designed to add more personnel to understaffed hospitals across the country. However, a massive walkout by residents would wreak chaos less than a month before the official start of the flu season.

"We are on the verge of a catastrophe," Dr. Doron Herman, head of the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, told Israeli Army Radio on Monday.

"People are going to die or be permanently crippled. I will have to perform surgery without any assistance from the interns, which is sad and dangerous. It would be advisable for people not to come to the hospital."

In an effort to alleviate the shortage of medical personnel in Israeli hospitals, the Nefesh B'Nefesh aliyahorganization has brought more than 300 doctors and dentists to Israel since 2002. In 2011 alone, more than 40 doctors have made aliyah.

"The impending shortage of doctors in Israel is a vital issue, which is why we established the Physician Aliyah Program in order to help doctors integrate more smoothly into the Israeli medical establishment," said Nefesh B'Nefesh Chairman Erez Halfon.

Nefesh B'Nefesh is currently recruiting another group of trained medical personnel, some of whom could make aliyah by the end of 2011.