Following "Israel Today" Exposure: Hard Evidence of Hospital Treatment in the North of the Country • "Suicide Patient, Electric Shock Treatment given without Anesthesia" • Ministry of Health: "Evidence will be revealed in court"

• Maale Carmel Hospital // Photo: Michelle Dot Com

Serious medical errors in the medical care that put patients at risk of life, providing wrongful drug treatment at three times the dose that "could have killed the patient" - these are some of the serious allegations against Ma'ale Carmel Hospital.

Other allegations are physician behavior that endangers patients' lives, identifying and treating a patient as if it were another patient, a department manager who does not want to help physicians who specialize in treating patients because they are busy with private medicine, specialized doctors who do not know and do not know the patients they are responsible for and lack medical information. Basic, 26-hour on-call duty of a specialist physician in charge of 150 patients without the help and support of a senior physician, a patient who committed suicide due to failed supervision and a shocking case of accidentally administering electrical tremor without anesthesia to a specialist physician.

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The shocking allegations regarding Ma'ale Carmel Government Psychiatric Hospital in Tirat Carmel, first revealed here, are emerging from the lawsuit and testimony of a specialist physician working in the hospital and a series of internal documents at the hospital. The testimony is currently being debated at the Haifa Labor Court and, based on its testimony, provides a rare glimpse of the real danger to mental health patients and their well-being, with physicians undergoing internships working without any external control, and in some cases interns working without the supervision of psychiatric ward administrators themselves, and when Those responsible for doctors' specialization in Israel (the Ministry of Health and the Scientific Council of the Medical Association) have not done their legal duty in the hospital for years.

As revealed today in Israel Today, seven years of psychiatric wards at Maale Carmel have not been renewed for years, as required by law, and in some wards for four to five years, and in light of this - the last check in some wards took place a decade and more years ago. These findings were also communicated in the extraordinary complaint of Professor Anatoly Cranein, director of Department 5A in the hospital, who complained about a month ago to the heads of the Scientific Council about the failure to specialize in the hospital where he works.

It has also been discovered that for many years, the 22 specialized doctors have been doing the internship and treating hundreds of mentally ill, some of them extremely difficult and complex, without any external supervision and supervision by the Scientific Council and the Ministry of Health. All in a way that contradicts the law and the Ministry of Health's instructions. According to senior doctors, this also results in the constant endangerment of hundreds of severely mentally ill patients, some of whom have been forcibly hospitalized and are in extremely difficult and life-threatening mental and medical conditions.

"Personal motives"

The new evidence in the case is contained in allegations made by a physician in a lawsuit against the hospital. He was fired in May 2019 from his job as a physician after two years of experience as a hospital psychiatry intern. The dismissal was made by the hospital manager, Dr. Jacob Polakwitz, and he reasoned, inter alia, that "he had recurring professional failure events, he was unfamiliar with patients undergoing treatment and there was concern about impairment of quality and safety, including cases of failure to follow instructions. Of senior doctors, three times the patient's dose and failure to report the patient's file and superiors. "

Following this, in June 2019, the doctor filed a lawsuit against the hospital through Attorney Zaki Kamal to the Haifa Labor Court. In the lawsuit, Attorney Kamal claims, among other things, that "there is no justification for stopping the doctor's work, and that" his dismissal was done for unreasonable reasons. Matters and personal motives of physicians who did not see eye to eye with his high quality professional work, including witnessing serious medical malfunction and hospital management and ignoring positive opinions of doctors who witnessed his dedication and professionalism. "

Attorney Kamal also claimed in the lawsuit that "the dismissal decision contravenes the difficult situation of Ma'ale Carmel Hospital, in which there are serious failures that are notable for two recent failures, one of which is a mistake in identifying a patient who came from Carmel Hospital In Haifa and was treated for another patient, thus causing him serious harm due to the mistake of identifying. While another patient, who is a resident abroad, also made a mistake in identifying. "

Group examination

As part of the lawsuit, the specialty physician recently submitted to the tribunal a primary testimony in which very serious claims are made about the work of the interns in the hospital. The doctor began the hospital internship in June 2017, claiming - in the department where he specialized in the department, "did not know the patients and engaged in his private work, and when I asked for his professional help he claimed that he was unavailable to help me, and that he expected the interns to know the patients and manage alone. "Every new patient will be examined by a senior doctor, but on the other hand, many patients have not been examined by him, claiming he does not have time to sit with each patient and patient."

He also stated that in the same patient examination ward was done not individually but in the presence of four to five patients together, and there is a concern about the serious violation of patients' privacy and the ability to diagnose and examine patients.

The doctor added in his testimony that his mistake in drug treatment for epilepsy was also made "due to the fact that I was alone in the department without any interns and no senior doctors could be consulted." Following the error in administering the drug "the patient suffered from blurred vision and headaches and I confirmed that I was wrong in dosage, then the department manager wrote to management that I had made a serious dose error." The doctor further stated that during the internship, he was "required to do night duty, which means the 26-hour duty that I alone is responsible for 4 departments with 150 patients, without the presence of a senior physician or other interns."

On a tragic case in which a schizophrenic patient committed suicide in an open ward in the hospital, the doctor testified in the affidavit: "He was examined by the ward's director for only five minutes, and senior doctors released him on vacation outside the hospital." In the investigation of the suicide case, allegations were made that the attending physician did not record the information about the patient's danger, as required.

The doctor also testified that the hospital's specialty physicians are obliged to treat patients with electrocardiogram (ETC) treatment, with the hospital's website requiring full anesthesia so that the patient does not feel anything, as the anesthetist is unaware of what is undergoing surgery. The anesthesia is given by a specialist anesthesiologist who has all the modern equipment needed. " However, according to the doctor's testimony - "One of the treatments accompanied him by a new specialist who as an intern taught her the treatment, but the specialist wanted to give the treatment to the electric tremors. Due to a lack of understanding between her and the anesthesiologist, she gave him an electric shock without anesthesia and he began to squeeze and moved. "Miraculously, no disaster happened in this case, but no specialty measures were taken against the physician."

The GP also stated that he had difficulty getting advice from a physician in the hospital: "When I contacted him he would get upset and tell me 'why should I consult him when I am a doctor myself and I need to know how to handle myself' ... I witnessed a lot of deficiencies during my internship So, and probably my firm adherence to my integrity and faithfulness, dedication and fearlessness and fear, I have had a doctor in doctors who do not consider a professional, hardworking and serious doctor like me to say what he believes in. "

The hearing on the doctor's claim is set for the coming March. In the hospital's response to the tribunal, he denied all doctor's claims. The response stated that "during the internship, the physician received guidance and guidance from the specialists as well as other professional bodies in accordance with the hospital internship program. Throughout his employment at the hospital, the physician did not provide a satisfactory explanation for his conduct, and from the beginning of the hospital experience there was no satisfaction from the applicant's senior physician and his degree. Real difficulties in his professional functioning leading to wrong medical decisions. "

The Health Ministry said in response: "The doctor's complaints regarding his dismissal and the conduct of the department's manager will become clear in court. The hospital works according to personnel regulations and Ministry of Health procedures. The hospital employs on-call doctors during the evening and night. Exceptional events that occur at the hospital, including deaths, are reported to the Ministry of Health, in accordance with the procedure for reporting unusual events.

"To the complaint about providing non-anesthetic electrical therapy, we note that this was indeed an exceptional event. The incident was reported to the Ministry of Health and a committee was examined. The committee examined the failures that led to the unusual event and recommended changes in procedures and refinement. We note that the patient did not need any medical treatment following the incident." .