Bnei Brak's Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center informed the Health Ministry on Tuesday that will no longer be able to treat coronavirus patients in need of respiratory assistance due to a lack of necessary equipment.
According to the hospital, it requested additional monitors needed for the operation of ventilators from the Health Ministry, but the monitors it received were not compatible with the ventilators it had.
As of Tuesday, there were 12 patients at the hospital receiving respiratory assistance with ventilators. Three other patients were recently taken off the machines after their condition improved.
Prof. Roni Gamzo, director of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, told the Health Ministry and Mayanei Hayeshua Director Prof. Moti Ravid that it would take in all those in need of a ventilator instead of further straining the overburdened health system in the ultra-Orthodox city, where one in three people is infected with the virus.
The Health Ministry was yet to comment on the issue.
According to data presented recently to MKs, there were only some 1,400 available ventilators and a total of 2,100 machines in Israel.
Health Ministry officials later claimed that the number was significantly lower than the actual figures as the respirators in the possession of the army were not accounted for and that there were actually 3,063 available ventilators in Israel.