Medical management crisis and extreme and unprecedented Israeli health system in recent months in the Department of neurosurgery at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
The crisis hits, among other things, hundreds of patients from all over the country who had to undergo brain surgery essential.
Some were rejected, and some moved to other hospitals.
The background to the crisis is difficult and unprecedented claims in the neurosurgical department, between the director of the brain catheterization unit, Prof. Jose Cohen, and the director of the neurosurgical department, Prof. Yigal Shoshan.
The hospital confirms that the working relationship in the ward has been undermined due to an internal dispute stemming from a communication problem.
Doctors claim that the impact of the conflict does not only affect the ward, but extends to other wards in the hospital - for example children with cancer.
Fear of harm to patients
Prof. Jose Cohen (56) is considered one of the best brain catheters in Israel and in the world.
He is known to the Israeli public as the one who operated on Ariel Sharon in 2006 when he suffered a severe stroke during his tenure as prime minister.
During his 21 years of work at Hadassah Ein Kerem, he has treated, operated and catheterized more than 40,000 patients with great success.
His colleagues describe him as one of the most experienced, successful and brilliant doctors in his field in the country, whose name precedes him around the world as well.
Prof. Jose Cohen,
However, Prof. Cohen, who is the only cerebral catheter working at Hadassah, was removed from the neurosurgical department in which the catheterization unit he manages operates.
Information received by "Israel Today" shows that among the other moves taken against him, in the last two months Prof. Shoshan has banned him from catheterizing and hospitalizing in the ward from non-urgent electrically catheterized patients who are most of his patients, and instructed the ward doctors not to treat them.
As a result, about 500 of his patients who had to undergo essential cerebral catheterizations with Prof. Cohen, and demanded to do so only with him because he had treated them with great success before, were rejected.
Some of them moved to other hospitals and some of them also went directly to the competing hospital, Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem.
Excluded from the WhatsApp group
It should be noted that from internal data of the hospital, Prof. Cohen was responsible for about half of the procedures in the neurosurgical department at Hadassah.
Revenue from the hospital is about NIS 54 million a year - which is more than half of the department's annual revenue.
But beyond the material issue, senior doctors at the hospital expressed their concern to "Israel Today" because there is a fundamental fear of harming the health of patients who could not receive the treatment from Prof. Cohen at Hadassah.
One of Prof. Cohen's patients, Rachel Yehezkel from Jerusalem, wrote a week ago to Hadassah's director of hospitals, Prof. Yoram Weiss: "In April 2021, Prof. Cohen saved my life after I underwent surgery due to an aneurysm over the optic nerve.
He showed patience, empathy and professionalism to his patients.
Now, I can not make an appointment with Prof. Cohen for an urgent invasive examination.
I send this not only on my behalf, but on behalf of all his patients who do not relate to the internal politics of Hadassah.
I urge you to resolve this issue as soon as possible because our health is more important and 'fragile' than anyone's ego. "
Rachel Ezekiel.
Prof. Cohen saved her life // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon,
Prof. Weiss replied to Ezekiel that efforts were being made to solve the problems, to which she replied: "Your answer is completely inconsiderate. I need the urgent test for a month and it causes extreme stress, because I can not continue with other medical treatments until Prof. Cohen does the test." .
But the unprecedented move to ban catheterization joined other sanctions that Prof. Shoshan has taken against Prof. Cohen in the past year: .
In all these matters, Prof. Cohen sent Prof. Weiss a detailed letter of complaint by his lawyers, Gilad Zabida and Liron Beck.
Claims also against Prof. Cohen
The neurosurgical department at Hadassah Ein Kerem defines itself in its publications as "one of the leading departments in Israel."
The department, which coordinates the neurosurgical treatment of 1.3 million residents of Greater Jerusalem, is proud of the use of the most advanced technological means in the world.
Every year, about 1,800 different neurosurgical operations are performed - planned or urgent.
But it turns out that Prof. Cohen recently sharply criticized some of the doctors who specialize in the department for the way they work and monitor the surgeons and those who are catheterized in the department.
Towards one of the specialist doctors he lamented that she was "a dangerous doctor who had already killed a patient."
Prof. Cohen further claimed that allegations against interns were covered by Hadassah and were not thoroughly investigated despite their severity.
On the other hand, there were other interns and employees, including an X-ray technician who worked with Prof. Cohen in the catheterization department, who claimed that he was harming them, abusing them and attacking them severely.
In May 2021, for example, tempers flared when during operation the department gatekeeper wrote one senior Arab doctors in the department that "justice is the most powerful weapon".
He wrote that Cohen responded: "He is invited to go to Gaza and banned entry to terrorists in our department."
In response, Professor lily director of the department to serve definitive answer, that "hatred blinds the eyes even of all talents".
Another specialist doctor complained to Prof. Shoshan in early March that Prof. Cohen had slapped him: "You may finish the training, but you are not worth anything and will not be worth anything."
According to the intern, "This is not the first time that Prof. Cohen has exhibited this type of misconduct towards me or towards my friends, and so far it has been restrained, but this week red lines were crossed when he used unusual verbal violence against an intern in the department."
However, a senior expert involved in the affair told "Israel Today" that "in this affair the great mobilization of the department's doctors against Prof. Cohen stands out, and it seems that they are really harming and abusing him.
"It was decided to reduce activity"
"Israel Today" requested the response of Prof. Yoram Weiss, Acting Director of Hadassah Hospitals, the response of Dalia Itzik, Chairman of the Board of Hadassah, the response of Prof. Yigal Shoshan, Director of the Neurosurgical Department at Hadassah, and the response of Prof. Jose Cohen , Director of the Endovascular Neurosurgery Unit and the response of all the specialist and specialist physicians associated with the affair.
Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital // Photo: Oren Ben Haccoun,
Hadassah Spokeswoman: "The Department of Neurosurgery is one of the flagships of Hadassah Medical Center and the State of Israel. The department's staff is one of the leading in the country, including its head and medical staff, nursing and technicians and other officials.
"As for what is described in the article, it will be clarified that before the eyes of the Hadassah management is first and foremost the safety of the patients and the quality treatment of them, as well as the well-being of the entire staff of the hospital.
"Under this principle, Hadassah's management worked harder and over a long period of time, to restore order to the working relationship that had been undermined due to an internal dispute that stemmed from a communication problem and affected a number of departments in the hospital and not just the neurosurgery department.
"After prolonged efforts, and when there was no choice and it was understood that the atmosphere created could harm medical procedures - it was decided to reduce activity in the brain catheterization unit, but of course approval was given to carry out all life-saving activities and save the lives of patients referred to Hadassah and this unit." Their lives and the peace of the staff members who felt harmed over time, and there is no exclusion or boycott in this, but a real attempt to help.
"Any attempt to impeach the personal level of the department's staff is unacceptable and inappropriate, and certainly not based on facts - that Hadassah took care to find out in an in-depth and professional process.
"It should be emphasized that all those mentioned in the article are excellent first-rate doctors, who have dedicated their lives to Hadassah and their patients and do so to this day with full professionalism and dedication."
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