Last night, hospital directors warned the director general of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Nachman Ash, that the increasing burden on corona wards threatens the ability to provide reasonable care, as well as fears of a shortage of staff for corona intensive care units that treat patients in the most difficult situation.
Spokeswoman at Beilinson Hospital
The conversation raised the forecast that the increase in patient numbers would be severe, congestion and mortality would continue for at least another three weeks, and that hospitals would not be able to provide reasonable care to citizens.
"Close to the edge of capacity"
One of the directors of the largest hospitals in the country stated: "The situation today is that due to the enormous load on the corona wards and the unprecedented shortage of doctors and nurses in isolation, there is already real and severe damage to the quality of medical care in corona patients. "Since the beginning of the plague, we have only just begun to count the dead."
"We are close to the limit of capacity," warns the director of the Galilee Medical Center, Prof. Masad Barhum.
"The combination of corona morbidity and winter morbidity, and especially the high rate of infection in corona, will mean that we may have to stop elective activity."
A similar reality was recorded in Be'er Sheva as well.
"Another corona ward was opened in Soroka today," the city hospital said.
"This is due to extensive morbidity and hospitalization within a day. Hundreds of staff at the medical center are in isolation, and the hospital has been forced to reduce its scope of activity. Currently, the hospital has six wards and units for the treatment of Corona patients."
Prof. Nimrod Maimon, Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Soroka, says that "the challenge we currently face is twofold: both to treat the increase in the fifth wave morbidity, and also to provide service to patients with the usual winter morbidity.
What characterizes the current wave is that many patients who suffer from other medical problems - such as stroke, heart attack, trauma injury and more - are also diagnosed with corona.
This is a situation that requires multi-team work and the management and operation of many different units in the hospital for the care of these patients. "
"Reduce activity"
Dr. Shlomi Kodesh, Director of Soroka: “Due to the growing increase in morbidity, it is inevitable that more wards will be opened for sick and hospitalized patients to Corona, depending on the preparation for the various scenarios.
The morbidity and isolation are not lost on the hospital staff, and the situation requires a reduction in elective activity and the conversion of personnel from various departments to the corona departments. "
At Rambam, 32 critically ill and 14 critically ill patients are hospitalized. On Tuesday, the 3,000 hospitalized at Rambam were admitted since the onset of the epidemic.
Meanwhile, congestion in the hospitals, where corona patients and flu patients are being treated, set a new negative record yesterday since the outbreak of the epidemic - according to a report by the IDF Intelligence Division.
The hospitals hospitalize more than 850 patients in critical condition, of whom 19 are connected to Acmo machines (heart-lung machine).
The overload was caused both by the corona virus and by the winter, when many winter diseases raged in Israel, most notably influenza.
Joining the load is the fact that 8,680 people in the health care system are isolated.
125 dead a week
Beyond the loads, mortality has also jumped forty times more than two weeks ago.
In recent days, about 40 people have died in Israel every day, according to the Israel Defense Forces. In recent days, 125 people have died in Israel as a result of the virus.
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