Israeli medical officials warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that the planned budget cuts will serve as a devastating blow to the health system.

Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz have announced major budget cuts and tax hikes last week, as part of an austerity plan aimed at curbing the burgeoning budget deficit.

On Monday, during its weekly cabinet meeting, the government is set to approve the cuts, including a 2.15-million-U.S. dollar cut in the health ministry's 2012 budget, and a 1.3-million-U.S. dollar cut in 2013.

In a letter sent to Netanyahu on Sunday, 23 medical professors expressed fears of the health system's collapse over the planned cuts.

"We feel the pain of patients forced to wait for hours, days and months for vital medical care and the frustrations of the doctors and nurses unable to administer proper medical care as they were trained to," they wrote.

Officials further stressed that the health system is already operating with 2.25 million dollars missing in public funds.

"We are already missing the necessary funds in order to provide basic care as stated in the state's law," Medical Association Chairman Leonid Edelman told the Ynet news site.

According to sources in the Health Ministry, the budget cuts will hurt the development of psychiatric facilities, the mental health reform, the nurses' layout and the fortification of a hospital in the southern city of Ashkeleon, located near the Gaza Strip.

Representatives from both the Finance Ministry and the Health Ministry will hold talks throughout Sunday in a last-minute attempt to prevent the cuts.