The ongoing dispute between the nation’s official primary emergency medical service, Magen David Adom and the different volunteer organizations is not news, especially MDA’s disdain for Ichud (United) Hatzalah, which today boasts over 1,600 volunteers nationwide, scooters, motorcycles, marine units, ATV units and more. Ironically, the latter is generally the first to arrive on a scene, with its fleet of nationwide first-response units, and it does not charge for its services, while MDA is quite costly despite its massive fundraising capabilities and government funding.

Sadly, MDA remained complacent for too many years, confident in its role as the nation’s EMS provider, but Ichud Hatzalah, Hatzalah, and Zaka realized there is a void to be filled, and fill they did, resulting in MDA constantly seeking ways to strike out against the mounting competition. According to most, MDA has already lost the battle and it is only a matter of time until the current system is revamped, long overdue as Israel, which faces existential threats on a regular basis and a growing number of vehicular accidents annually simply needs to switch to a national 911 system and a national Office of Emergency Management. In short, MDA needs to get with the times.

In any event, in July the ongoing tensions between MDA and Ichud Hatzolah picked up as MDA decided to cut off Ichud volunteers’ pagers, seeking to place the 1,600 nationwide volunteers out of the loop. This did not last long for public outcry and the fact that the deputy minister of health, Yaakov Litzman is a fan of Ichud Hatzalah brought that incident to an abrupt end.

Litzman has formed a committee with is studying the situation, probing the possibility of yanking MDA’s monopoly on EMS services. One possibility if what is dubbed ‘Rachel’, an acronym for Reshut Cheirum Leumi (an Israeli version of the Office of Emergency Management) which would eliminate the need to phone three separate emergency agencies, police, fire, ambulance, but adopt the American 911 system towards combining dispatch service under a united roof. The fact that the modern State of Israel still compels one to call police (100), MDA (101) and fire (102) instead of one central emergency number is absurd, nothing less.

Litzman’s committee is headed by Dr. Boaz Tadmor, the acting director of Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah. The committee is expected to complete its work by the end of the Gregorian year.

Dr. Boaz Lev, the deputy director of the Health Ministry has instructed the committee to probe a number of areas, including;

Should the nation’s emergency medical services remain in the hands of a single organization
Defining the scope of authority
Reciprocity and cooperation between agencies
Professional responsibilities
Operating on the scene of a pre-hospital incident, responsibilities and control

If the committee accepts the growing demand to authorize other emergency agencies, such as Ichud Hatzalah, it will deliver a fatal blow to MDA, not to mention its well-oiled fundraising mechanism that exists worldwide. While the others maintain first-response units, only MDA is currently authorized to transport a patient to a hospital, and if the system is opened to others,  this unique MDA advantage will be gone as well.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)