The Ministerial Committee on Legislation today (Sunday) approved the bill to establish a single emergency center for MDA rescue organizations and the Rescue Union. This is despite heavy pressure from MDA not to approve the proposal and opposition of Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz.
Meanwhile, this proposal should be put to a vote in the Knesset plenum.
The purpose of the proposal initiated by coalition chairman MK Idit Silman is to streamline and improve life-saving medical emergency care, by making all emergency calls reach all rescue drives from all organizations.
In a letter sent by MDA's lawyers to the Deputy Attorney General over the weekend, it was argued that the proposal could cause the bill to remove MDA from the Red Cross and even "harm MDA's ability to provide emergency services and jeopardize its status." But without inventing a reference to things.
Silman herself commented on the content of the letter: "In the absence of MDA power, they are trying to terrorize in an attempt to preserve a distorted reality in which optimal treatment and life-saving Israeli citizens are avoided.
When one of us stands in the middle of a medical emergency and needs help, I promise you no one will care if the person who saved the convulsive child or the father who had a heart attack is an MDA volunteer or a rescue union. "Save our status with the Red Cross, save it for someone else. Next time, do your homework."
It should be noted that as early as 2017, a circular was issued by the CEO with explicit instructions that MDA should act to share the information, but in practice, it was the last time in the Knesset debate that MDA ignores the Ministry of Health's directives. , According to which a paramedic from the rescue union is sometimes two minutes away from an emergency, but the message did not reach him and an MDA ambulance arrives only a few minutes later.
MK Idit Silman, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
An examination committee on the issue of pre-hospital emergency medicine, headed by Dr. Boaz Tadmor, ruled as early as 2013 that a common center should be established for all organizations and that this could pool the resources of the rescue forces for the benefit of Israeli citizens.
MK Silman: "I was chosen to serve the public - and there is no holier value than preserving public health and human life.
"Unfortunately, foreign considerations affect the bill that I am promoting together with MK Moshe Gafni regarding the unification of the medical emergency centers. I clarify: I will not bow to any organization or person on this issue. Saving lives is not a commercial business."
Response from the director general of the Rescue Union, Eli Pollak: "We welcome the decision to approve the bill for the unification of emergency centers by MK Idit Silman, which will now be passed for legislation in the Knesset plenum. This is a historic step, which we Moshe Gafni and Winon Azulai, because the value of sanctity and saving lives is greater than any other consideration.
"Thousands of volunteers from the Rescue Union are ready, as always, and at any moment, to contribute their professionalism and dedication to the health of the citizens of the State of Israel."
The president of the Rescue Union, Eli Bir: "I call on the Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz, who works day and night for public health, to continue the revolution he is making in the Ministry of Health in emergency medicine and to end the legislative process soon to save lives in Israel."
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