The fifth wave is reaching its peak in terms of morbidity data, which raises the question of whether the health care system can cope with the omicron, alongside regular hospitalizations, winter illnesses and flu.
As of yesterday, Rambam Hospital had 70 patients in three different corona wards, including an intensive care unit for adults and a special ward for children.
In all hospitalized nine respirators and another 35 seriously ill patients.
The hospital says they have seen a change in trend in recent weeks, and if two weeks ago there were 42 flu patients hospitalized, today only eight are hospitalized.
On the other hand, the number verified to Corona only increases among the workers as well.
Prof. Hagai Levin, chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians, explains that the question is not whether the system will get into difficulty in the future, because he says it is already under heavy load and already functioning in a way that treatment is not optimal: Influenza and with constant burnout.
In addition, there are many isolated staff members, and all this when there are hundreds of thousands of positive people with symptoms who want a response or advice from the system. "
Prof. Nadav Davidovich, director of the Public Health School at Ben-Gurion University, adds:" It should be said every winter The system is under significant load.
"It was before the corona and it impairs the ability to give significant treatment to some of the patients, so we will have to rely more on community care and give medication only to those who are really in danger."
"The situation is not good"
Prof. Dror Mevorach, director of Boarding School B and the Corona Department at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, described to Israel Today what is happening: "The situation is not good, but we hope it will pass quickly.
There is quite a bit of pressure because we do not have enough manpower.
We at Hadassah have 100 sick doctors and 200 sick nurses.
This is ten percent of the power of our doctors.
The disease itself is not severe, but we do not have a broad enough staff.
I warn that this is problematic. "
Last night, Prof. Mevorach wrote on Twitter: "The number of nurses per patient is insufficient, the number of doctors per patient is insufficient, non-essential procedures are postponed - and this will worsen in the next two weeks. The number of patients is seriously approaching record breaking."
Dr. Ariel Rokach, director of the respiratory care unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, said: “The situation is worrying, but not panic.
It is important to encourage getting vaccinated and be careful about masks so that we do not reach a breaking point.
I believe we will not get there. "
"There are resources to deal with"
Dr. Kobi Habib, director of the Herzog Medical Center, said: “This is the most difficult week we have had in terms of an increase in the number of Corona patients hospitalized in the face of the staff drop.
We have 90 hospitalized Corona patients, but the morbidity in this wave is different.
"People are recovering and recovering."
Prof. Jacob Dreyer, deputy director of Soroka Medical Center, said: "One of the main challenges for the hospital is to continue to operate the departments, despite a steady increase in the number of verified staff. The response that can be challenged is by reducing non-urgent activity."
At the same time, Soroka chooses to reassure: "We are very far from insufficient, and we have the resources to deal with the current wave of illness."
Gila Heimes, director of nursing at Rambam Medical Campus, adds: "The medical staff works 12 hours in each shift and we also add a sixth shift a week."
Prof. Michael Halbertl, Director of Rambam: "Some of the verified staffs are in critical wards such as MLRAD and intensive care. At the same time, there are many patient referrals to MLRD and the inpatient wards are full.
The hospital management and staff do their best to provide a solution.
"We ask patients to be patient and understand that as a result of the load there will be an impact on hospital activity and we may have to delay non-urgent activity. In addition we will ask for unnecessary visits and obey isolation instructions and prevent crowds and mask wearing."
At the hospital they make sure to wear masks among the staff and also among the hospital visitors, inspectors walk around the corridors of the hospital.
In addition the hospital management instructed not to eat in groups, and to try to avoid social events.
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