"Even now, hospitals in the country are forced to make choices and preferences among corona patients," say senior officials at hospitals across the country, who are repeatedly warning of poor treatment that hard-to-hospitalize patients receive.
The impossible choice is between the patients in a critical condition who will be connected to the artificial heart and lung device (Hakmo) and those who do not have enough devices to connect them to.
Are forced to choose between corona patients who are in a very difficult situation and connected to the respirators that have a bed for them in the corona intensive care unit, and those who do not have a place in the dedicated ward and will be cared for by a less skilled and experienced nursing and medical staff.
This serious warning, which is being exposed here for the first time, was raised by Dr. Orly Weinstein, head of the hospitals division at Clalit Health Fund, in a meeting held on Sunday between hospital directors with Prof. Nachman Ash, director general of the Ministry of Health.
By virtue of her position, Dr. Weinstein is responsible for about half of the hospitals in Israel that are generally owned, including the Beilinson, Soroka, Kaplan, Haemek and Carmel hospitals.
Prof. Nachman Ash // Photo: Yehuda Peretz,
The serious and unprecedented warning in the current wave of the Corona was said following a meeting of Prof. Masad Barhoum, director of the Galilee Government Hospital in Nahariya, who warned at the meeting that "we are very close to a situation of choice and preference among patients" in the Corona wards.
According to hospital administrators and senior physicians, Dr. Weinstein's unprecedented statement came following a conversation with Clalit - owned hospital administrators, some of whom have warned that they are already forced to choose between patients.
The officials also said that the difficult situation of insufficiency and mortality of patients due to a shortage of intensive care beds and Acmo devices has existed in recent days in most hospitals in Israel - both in those owned by Clalit and those owned by the Ministry of Health.
As revealed in Israel Today, senior doctors have warned since the beginning of the month that hospitals are in "insufficient" medical care, and that Corona patients are already dying due to a shortage of intensive care beds, a shortage of nursing staff skilled in treating respiratory patients and extreme staff attrition Which causes the death of patients.
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 700 seriously ill patients are hospitalized, including about 200 respiratory patients.
Since August, more than 1,000 coronary heart disease patients, most of them with coronary heart disease, have died in hospitals.
Prof. Barhum Masad, director of the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya // Photo: Ancho Gush-Gini,
Warnings about the serious and life-threatening condition of corona patients in hospitals were also raised at another meeting held last Friday with the director general of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Ash, in which Corona wards, intensive care wards and head nurses from hospitals in the country participated.
According to the transcript of the conversation revealed here for the first time, "All participants talked about the ongoing overcrowding and the difficult situation that the current level of morbidity is causing in hospitals, and some have defined it as a 'war of attrition'. ".
It was also stated at the meeting that "the most noticeable thing that affected all the participants was the attrition of the staff, with an emphasis on the nursing staff, and the lack of a professional and skilled staff in treating difficult and critical patients - that is, quality and intensive care staff. "
"Sucked to Corona"
The participants of the meeting raised other very serious difficulties in the treatment of corona patients, including "the problem of congestion in small hospitals, especially in the south of the country, which deal with disproportionate morbidity, and therefore the treatment in other areas is severely impaired." Completely discontinued. "
In this regard, the requirement was raised "to regulate the load for other larger hospitals."
Prof. Rahav // Photo: Gideon Markovich,
The profile of severe patients was stated at the meeting that "most difficult patients today are younger, unvaccinated and their disease is particularly severe with a significant infectious component, and the need to use data to explain the difficult condition and morbidity among unvaccinated and encourage compliance with guidelines and vaccines is emphasized."
Concluding the discussion, Prof. Ash said that "the burden on the health system is great and is expected to continue for another period, until the exit of the fourth wave. The fact that the economy and the education system are open according to government decisions means that the main tool "The morbidity among those who are not vaccinated and regrets not choosing to get vaccinated. The Ministry of Health is aware of the attrition of the medical staff and the heavy workload due to the ongoing epidemic.
"Intolerable Mortality"
The warnings and warnings of senior hospital officials join the harsh and unprecedented remarks made by Prof. Galia Rahav, director of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Sheba Government Hospital in Tel Hashomer and revealed in "Israel Today", according to which "mortality now .
Moreover, in early September, Israel Today revealed additional warnings from senior hospital physicians, according to which the quality of care for corona patients in a critical condition is only declining, and that in some hospitals the condition is already of severe insufficiency, which means that patient care is already high. Less explanatory because of the severe attrition of the team of doctors and nurses, who fail to provide adequate medical care to corona patients in critical condition.
The head of a department at one of the largest government hospitals in the country told Israel Today at the time that most corona wards in the country have unskilled doctors and nurses who do not know how to treat patients severely, and some have no idea what to do at night with the patients. And the doctors are also very worn out. Some of the staff in many of the corona wards are unable to cope with the very difficult conditions of the corona patients, and they do not know and are not experienced in dealing with respiratory patients.
"The significance is catastrophic and the quality of care in these cases is extremely poor, and all this happens when the public does not know about it at all and hospital administrators broadcast 'business as usual'," he said.
The Ministry of Health said at the time that "the ministry is closely monitoring hospital occupancy throughout the Corona crisis."