צילום: עופר מאיר
Health Crisis Intensifies
Patients dying due to lack of proper care, says doctor during Knesset Health Committee session
JERUSALEM – Hospital patients are dying because swamped doctors and nurses are unable to treat them, said a Tel Aviv-area doctor during a tense Knesset Health Committee session today.
The meeting was called in the wake of the growing health crisis, as hospitals struggle to provide proper care with admissions exceeding capacity.
Doctors have warned of the ongoing problem before but the it has not been addressed, said Hospital Directors Union Chairman Yaakov Hart.
“It’s a national disaster,” he said.
The health system is facing a NIS 1.6 billion shortfall, but the Health Ministry is not moving to tackle the problem in earnest, Hart said.
“The solutions offered are akin to prescribing Tylenol to a dying man,” he said.
Hospitalized children are not being cared for, and many of them are exposed to further infections in light of a nurse shortage, said Pediatrician Union Chairman Francis Maimoni.
Non-emergency surgeries are being canceled, leaving patients who have been waiting for months suffering, added Hadassah Ein Kerem physician Dan Engelhard.
Health Committee Chairman Shaul Yahalom backed the doctors during the meeting, and called on them to strike unless a dramatic improvement is seen.
“We turn to the Treasury and say…you are guilty in the patients’ death,” he said.
The health system has been neglected and the current situation marks its collapse, Yahalom said.
The Treasury representative at the meeting, however, dismissed accusations leveled at the Finance Ministry.
“We added another NIS 450 million to the 2005 health budget,” he said.
Participants in the meeting concluded by agreeing to establish a special team comprised of Health and Treasury officials. The team has been tasked with formulating intermediate solutions to the health crisis within 30 days.
The doctors are also planning to petition the High Court of Justice in light of what they say are government failures that led to the crisis. Meanwhile, nurses have announced that they would refuse to admit more patients into departments filled to capacity.
