This is already the second time that Assuta's hospital network has received very serious allegations and serious suspicions regarding the way fertilization is managed and the hospitals' conduct.
This is particularly grave and outrageous. The Assuta chain conducts most fertility treatments in Israel as a whole. The chain, which is owned and controlled by Maccabi Health Fund (or at least should be under Maccabi's responsibility), boasts its large hospital in Ramat Hachayal in Tel Aviv. According to its publications, it is "the most sophisticated and safe hospital in Israel, where the best medical services are provided by senior doctors in accordance with Assuta's longstanding tradition."
Assuta is the largest and central private hospital chain in Israel. She was expected to operate to the highest legal, public and ethical standards, especially after the egg replacement affair at Assuta Hospital in Rishon LeZion exploded.
However, even this shocking affair, in which the Ministry of Health made very harsh findings about Assuta, did not lead the hospital management to report the new affair to the ministry itself, as required by law. The management has not begun to investigate the complaint and examine whether there is a need to update additional couples who were treated at the time, and perhaps there is concern about a similar problem as well, and if there is a need to urgently change work procedures for sperm donations at Assuta and other hospitals in Israel.
The fertility department worked like a train station. Illustration, photo: Getty Images
However, none of this has happened, and indeed, for many years the Ministry of Health has not issued such an unusual and severe notice about a hospital in Israel, as it did on Friday about Assuta Ramat HaHayal. According to the statement, the ministry views with severity the fact that the hospital did not report the incident despite procedures, and does not conduct a thorough and thorough investigation at the same time. It added that "without a thorough examination of the incident, it is impossible to determine what took place and any insinuation or other statement is irresponsible." The unambiguous reference is to public announcements made by Assuta itself in recent days.
The Ministry of Health's announcement illustrates the depth of Assuta's management's blindness to the severity of its conduct and the implications for tens and hundreds of thousands of Israelis treated at Assuta. This is in addition to the lack of reference to the magnitude of the crisis of trust, which may be irreparable, created here between the public and Assuta, Maccabi and the Ministry of Health.
Assuta Hospital in Rishon LeZion. Difficult findings, photo: Coco
However, the Ministry of Health's announcement, determined and critical as it may be, cannot hide its serious and ongoing failure to supervise and control hospitals in Israel and Assuta in particular.
The serious and unforgivable failure was exposed even earlier in the Ministry of Health's investigation into the egg replacement failure at Assuta Rishon LeZion. There it was discovered that the grade given by the Ministry of Health to the hospital in its inspection in 2019 was 92, despite the harsh findings of excessive load, which can cause errors and malfunctions.
In retrospect, it was discovered that the high and absurd grade in the Ministry of Health's inspection served as an excellent and appalling excuse. He led, according to the Health Ministry's own scathing investigation findings, to a fertility institute that operates like a doctors' "train station." A station that operates with almost no supervision and control, with economic considerations overriding considerations of quality and safety of treatment. The medical institution became an assembly line.
And if neither the Ministry of Health nor Maccabi nor Assuta can be trusted to maintain a high, safe and moral level of medical care, then who else can be trusted?
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