“A patient died in an ambulance because there was nowhere to evacuate her”

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Heartbreaking: MDA Director General Eli Bin was interviewed this afternoon (Sunday) on Yael Dan’s program at the GLC, and revealed a shocking reality: “Patients wait for hours in ambulances. “Today, a patient died from a nursing home in an ambulance because hospitals did not want to accept her.”

Protesters protest against budget discrimination, Tuesday // Photo: Yoni Rickner

In an interview with Israel Today, Ben said: “This morning a call arrived from the Herzog Geriatric Hospital in Jerusalem for an ambulance. The team arrived at an elderly woman with coronary heart disease, who suffered from severe shortness of breath. There was a hospital that agreed – everyone said they were full of patients and had no place.

“We turned to the Ministry of Health who told us to wait with the patient, meanwhile she started to deteriorate into severe shortness of breath and the staff put a tubus in her – that is, the soul into the trachea. She was resuscitated and unfortunately pronounced dead. “

“This is a situation that is happening all the time in the current epidemic, the ambulances, the mobility of the intensive care unit, are stuck with patients for hours and there is nowhere to move them. This is a problem because the Ministry of Finance does not allocate money to hospitals and MDA. “There were a lot of cases where ambulances waited with patients for hours.”

The MDA director general added: “This reality also means that we do not arrive in time for heart attacks and other patients, we get stuck with patients and thus delays are created in arriving for more treatments. This whole situation is terrible and there is simply an impossible load.”

As you may recall, yesterday the public hospitals announced tonight that from today they will not accept ambulances that do not include life-saving cases, due to refusal. The Ministry of Finance is negotiating to increase their budget and due to the severe shortage of resources.

The announcement of the hospitals (Shaare Zedek, Laniado, Maayan Hayeshua and the three hospitals in Nazareth) Comes after a meeting between hospital administrators and the Ministry of Finance on Thursday ended without results. Hospital administrators sought to continue the negotiations, but finance officials refused. “The current situation does not allow hospitals to purchase equipment, pay suppliers and operate hospitals properly,” it said.

The principals called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz to intervene immediately on the issue and bring the negotiations between the parties to an end.

Ambulance in Tel Aviv, last year // Photo: Yehoshua Yosef

Following the principals’ appeal to MDA Director General Eli Bin, the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Professor Hezi Levy, condemned their decision: “The directive that you issued is invalid and does not comply with the procedures of the Ministry of Health. The evacuation of patients to you will continue as usual, along with continuing efforts to regulate budgetary issues.”

He added: “I am aware of the budgetary difficulties you are experiencing. The Minister of Health and I are dealing with the issue intensively with the Ministry of Finance, but we will not be able to accept a situation in which patients are used as a tool in negotiations.”

As part of the hospitals ‘protest, hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical staff demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Tuesday in protest of the hospitals’ economic situation.

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