Directors of geriatric and nursing institutions in the country warn that due to the extreme hospitalization load in the Fifth Corona wave, and also because of the hundreds of isolated workers and the severe shortage of government budgets, there is already significant harm in treating severely corona patients hospitalized in those institutions.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, about 700 corona patients are hospitalized in geriatric hospitals, 100 of them in critical condition, in addition to about 2,700 other geriatric patients hospitalized in general hospitals, about 1,100 of them in critical condition.
Treatment of a corona patient at a geriatric center in Bat Yam, Photo: Gideon Markovich
According to the directors of the institutions, the real number is much larger, since patients were left hospitalized in wards and not transferred to the special corona wards, and therefore were not included in the Ministry of Health count.
As revealed about two weeks ago in "Israel Today", the nursing and geriatric hospitals have warned that they are facing an economic collapse due to the special expenses associated with the fifth wave, which could hurt thousands of patients.
According to them, they did not receive any response to their inquiries.
Dr. Galit Kaufman, CEO of Beit Balev, the network of rehabilitation centers and sheltered housing of the Maccabi Health Insurance Fund, told Israel Today: Budgeted.
"This is a complete disconnect from the reality on the ground, and there is a huge difficulty in absorbing nursing patients from the general hospitals due to the closure of wards, due to being verified in Corona."
Itzik Cohen, CEO of the Geriatrics Association in Israel, said similar things: "In 2021-2020, non-governmental geriatric institutions and hospitals received special support of about NIS 200 million a year due to the corona crisis.
But this year, the Ministry of Finance gave up on the elderly patients and stopped budgeting the institutions.
We do not want the quality of care for patients to be harmed. "
Dr. Kobi Habib, Photo: PR
Dr. Kobi Habib, CEO of the Herzog Rehabilitation Hospital in Jerusalem: "In the last two years, we have proven that we are at the forefront of treating the most complex populations in the health system. Without our treatment of the elderly population, general hospitals would collapse under the load, The public. "
He added: "It is not possible that at the height of the illness, the budgeting mechanisms were stopped. The entire industry is in dramatic distress. There is no other example in Israel of a person who needs hospitalization and has to look for a hospital that is willing to hospitalize and treat him."
At the request of the Ministry of Health, a first-of-its-kind unit in the country for chronic corona patients was opened this week in Herzog, designed to reduce the inpatient load in Corona intensive care units in geriatric and rehabilitative hospitals.
"Boris Levin, Chairman and Owner of GoldenCare Medical Centers:" The condition of the geriatric industry is very difficult, and the corona has only intensified it. I am ashamed that I have to demand a budget that we deserve. .
Ido Sharir, CEO of Reut Rehabilitation Hospital in Tel Aviv: "We are in a very difficult budget problem.
We have reached a situation where if the distress continues and is not budgeted soon, we will have to close hundreds, if not thousands of beds in the entire geriatric system in Israel.
It's a matter of time. "
Dr. Aryeh Wellner, director of the respirators division at Maccabi's Beit Balev network: "The budgeting of the elderly population today is shameful and humiliating, and in the end the quality of care for patients is difficult in the entire geriatric system.
We are dealing with a very difficult corona wave, without budgetary certainty. "
The Ministry of Finance stated: "The ministry has invested NIS 29 billion in strengthening and preparing the health system for Corona. The issue will be examined after examining the financial data of the said bodies and in light of them."
The Corona Virus Information Center said: "In the coming days, a call will be issued for applications for indemnification for geriatric institutions and sheltered housing, as was the case in the first two waves. "Geriatric hospitals and institutions until March 1, then budget as needed."
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