On Monday YWN-ISRAEL reported on the serious overcrowding that exists in many hospitals throughout Israel, the result of the winter flu season. Health ministry officials are urging all those who are not ill and have not yet received a flu vaccine to vaccinate as soon as possible. Some of the HMOs report they are temporarily out of the vaccine, but the Leumit Kupat Cholim on Tuesday morning 18 Shevat 5773 reports it has 11,000 vaccines ready and waiting.
The situation vis-à-vis the flu continues to deteriorate. Soroka Medical Center officials on Monday night reported a 28-year-old female who arrived in very serious condition died of swine flu after suffering a systemic collapse of her vital organs. She became the second fatality in Israel from that illness this winter. The first was a week earlier.
In Laniado Hospital, also known as the Sanz Medical Center in Netanya, the situation is quite serious. The overcrowding has reached a very serious level, to the point that the hospital’s cafeteria has been converted into a patient ward, now lined with patient beds. Overcrowding at that hospital is reported to have reached 155%, attributed to the flu.
Hospital Director Dr. Avinoam Skulnik confirmed the severity of overcrowding, admitting his staff is having considerable difficulty maintaining the patient load.
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(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
I was in one of them yesterday!!!
Unless your matter is life threatening….take my advice, stay home!!
If it had not been the flu, it would have been something else. Israel’s medical system is on the verge of collapse. This was clear at the time of the doctors strike and more recently the strike of the nurses. While money will help improve the situation, it is more a problem of too much Government control of the system.
We are a nation at war but between battles and must consider what will happen when the next hot phase erupts. If a seasonal flu outbreak can cause such havoc, what will a major war do?
It is shocking and shameful that no new hospitals have been built for so long.
The only thing that is being built now is miniature limited-service hospital in Ashdod, a city of +200,000 that does not have any hospital. But a city of that size warrants a real, full hospital – not just a little clinic!
Then there is Beit Shemesh, which all by itself has 80,000 inhabitants (many more if you count the numerous kibbutzim and moshavim in the area), with the nearest hospital being in Jerusalem!
And Modi’in, which together with Modi’in Illit has 125,000 inhabitants. Nearest hospitals: Tzrifin and Jerusalem.
The lack of hospitals is horrible.
Doctors: in order to get into the University they have to pass a Psychometric exam based on “Trivia” absolutely far from proof that they can be good doctors. The Psychometric organisation is worth tens of millions per year and sends the students abroad to cheaper shores and many do not come back, attracted by better conditions. In the other hand, we welcome doctors from doubtful origins!
Nurses: they bear a tremendous physical demand in hours and responsibility… and they get less than a “shomer”.
Something is sick from the beginning… and this sickness cannot be cured in our hospitals.