A state-of-the-art surgical robot purchased for $ 2.5 million from donations for residents of the Western Galilee is left unused at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya because the Ministry of Health has not approved a budget for the hospital to operate it.
"Israel Today" learned that this week the first operation was to be performed with the help of the device, and the patient who had already arrived for the operation was informed at the last minute that his operation had been postponed.
At the hospital, appointments for surgeries had to be postponed.
The hospital in Nahariya, which operates under the supervision of an accompanying accountant, is in the process of becoming more efficient.
The hospital asked the Ministry of Health for a budget to operate the sophisticated device, and in a letter received from Eran Hacohen, deputy head of the Ministry of Health's medical centers division, they replied that "because a business plan has not yet been built The robot. "
The surgical robot, called "Da Vinci", performs complex surgeries including prostate surgeries, gastric bypass surgeries and more.
Its uniqueness is that the surgery is performed using a robotic arm that is inserted through a small opening and without a large incision.
The surgeon can operate it remotely and even from another room.
Recovery is faster and the results from the surgery are better.
Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, Herzli Shapira
The hospital has several senior physicians with extensive experience in operating the robot, including the director of the first surgery department, Dr. Eli Kakiashvili, the director of the urology department, Dr. David Kakiashvili, and the director of the obstetrics and gynecology department, Prof. Lior Lebenstein.
There are 11 such robots in Israel.
Data received by MK Ofir Katz from the Ministry of Health show that seven of the devices are in the center, two in Jerusalem, in the entire northern region there is only one device at Rambam Hospital, and in the entire southern region there is one device in Soroka in Be'er Sheva.
MK Ofir Katz said: "In this government, they simply forgot that there is also a periphery, ignore the treatment of problems and trample on the quality of life of the residents.
Apparently the lives of the inhabitants of the periphery are less important to the ministers of health and finance.
shame.
I turned to the Minister of Health on the subject and I will fight to put the funding in the near budget. "Raya Strauss, president of the Friends of the Western Galilee Hospital Association:" The Ministry of Health has been abusing this hospital for years, and the life expectancy of the area is lowest.
The hospital serves 600,000 people, why not give them what is in the center? "
MK Ofir Katz, Oren Ben Hakon
As we recently published in "Israel Today", the hospital's request to approve a budget of NIS 10 million for the construction of an underground corona ward was also not approved.
The center of the Galilee Medical Center said: "The center received the robot from the Friends of the Hospital Association with the generous assistance of the association's president, Ms. Raya Strauss Ben Dror. The operation of the robot will be coordinated with the hospitals division in the coming days.
Ministry of Health in response: "Waiting for the plan"
"The operation of the robot requires a budget allocation. The hospital division sees great value in operating it and is waiting for an economic plan that the hospital is working to build.
