Nearly 800 doctors and nurses have contracted the virus, more than 3,000 medical personnel have been ordered into isolation • “This is a fiasco in the making,” warns chairman of Israel Physicians Association.


(September 22, 2020 / Israel Hayom) The Israeli health-care system is on the brink of collapse and will soon no longer be able to ensure coronavirus patients receive adequate care, health officials warned on Monday amid new data indicating that the country’s second outbreak is showing no signs of slowing down.

As of Monday evening, several major hospitals announced that their COVID-19 units had either exceeded capacity or were nearing full capacity, raising concerns patient care would be compromised.

While the Health Ministry had committed to integrating as many as 700 new doctors into the health-care system, the Knesset Information Center revealed that so far, only 156 such positions have been filled.

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The team advising the country’s Coronavirus Project Coordinator Ronni Gamzu has warned that health-care providers “are experiencing growing fatigue. In some hospitals, the teams have not been relieved for a prolonged period.” The growing number of doctors and nurses who must be quarantined due to potential exposure to the virus is also playing a major role in increasing the burden on medical teams, they said.

So far, 772 doctors and nurses have contracted COVID-19, and some 3,157 medical personnel have been ordered into isolation.

“This is a fiasco in the making,” warned Dr. Ze’ev Feldman, chairman of the Israel Physicians Association. He accused the Finance Ministry of imposing bureaucratic difficulties on the hiring process over “its desire to control everything. It undermines the system.”

“The problem the Health Ministry is facing has nothing to do with ventilators and other equipment; it has to do with the fact that caregivers are collapsing with exhaustion,” he said. Read more at JNS