Elderly people find it difficult to get an appointment for the vaccine: “We make everyone laugh”

Maccabi’s branch for vaccines also collapsed this morning (Monday) and it is not possible to make an appointment through HaMoked. At Clalit HMO, too, the picture is the same, and a minute later the call is cut off. The National Health Insurance Fund announces that due to multiple calls, it should be tried later and the call is disconnected as well. At Meuhedet the line was active during those hours and it was possible to book an appointment for the vaccine.

A Ynet reporter visited the Clalit HMO branches and witnessed the heavy loads. Many patients came to the branches after failing to reach the hotlines by phone and were furious with the clerks, who provided only one answer – the queue can only be scheduled at the hotlines that have collapsed. In many cases, when the call is disconnected, an SMS message is sent with a link to the app – which makes it difficult for many older insureds. One of the clerks tried to explain to the elderly man that he would have to be patient for another month, if the situation continues like this, and said: “It is not urgent.” The frustrated senior replied, “Don’t tell me it’s not urgent. To you it’s not urgent, but I’m 86 and do not know if I will get up tomorrow morning.”

73-year-old Hannah arrived at the HMO with her 80-year-old sister, after their efforts to make an appointment through the website came to naught. “After a short wait, the call is disconnected, and we receive a message directing us to the website,” Ynet was told. “When you enter the site, you see that it is not possible to make appointments. It does not work and it is very frustrating for us. We are helpless.”

On the HMOs’ Facebook pages, the insured continue to attack the conduct as early as Tuesday in a row. “What do your explanations help if, at the time of the appointments, they promise to send a notice of the date of the vaccination within six hours, and 20 hours pass and nothing happens?”, One of the insured wrote to the Maccabi HMO. Another surfer added that “the service is under all criticism. A long wait, an hour and a half until receiving a response, making an appointment for the first vaccination when it is not possible to make the second appointment, then cancel and start again – and so three times. A million people are unemployed, recruit more callers”, valid .

“Really shameful treatment of your patients,” wrote another surfer. “It does not make sense for you to send your insured dozens of emails to come and get vaccinated when it is not possible to make an appointment for a vaccination on the website. Get vaccinated? What will those who are not mobile and have no family members do? How are they supposed to get the vaccine? “.

Clalit’s page was also flooded with angry surfers. In response to one of the posts that invited the insured to get vaccinated, one of the surfers responded: “You make fun of everyone. I happened to make an appointment two days ago, but how do you make an appointment for another 21 days? Unfortunately, none of my acquaintances can make an appointment in any way.” Another insured wrote: “On screen it looks great. In practice, nothing is working and not working. Neither on site nor on the phone. After two hours of trying at different times of the day I had to give up. The vaccine is for my 92-year-old mother, who has a serious background illness. “She herself and many others like her will not be vaccinated. The conduct of the fund deprives those who need the vaccine the most. Who knows if they will survive the corona.”

Despite the congestion and the high demand for vaccines, Maccabi’s vaccination complex at Heichal Shlomo in Tel Aviv will only operate for half a day on Tuesday and will close at noon, although on other days it operates until eight in the evening. The reason: in the drive-in complex that operates outside the hall, a film screening is planned on the evening of the wall of the hall, and for this purpose the building must be darkened.

As a result, many customers who made an appointment for Tuesday evening were disappointed to receive a message stating that their appointment had been canceled. The sports hall company that operates the Shlomo Hall said: “This is a one-time event, and the activity of the vaccination centers is given priority. The sports hall company sees the vaccination campaign as a national task and has volunteered to help the health funds.”

Hundreds of people have come since noon to receive the corona vaccines at the Clalit Health Fund’s vaccination centers in the Haifa district, at the Lynn clinic and at the Zevulun clinic in the Krayot – and there have even been queues. The fund estimates that about 500 people a day can be vaccinated at each of the testing centers.

Reuven Meridiani from Kiryat Yam, was among the first to be vaccinated due to his age. “I managed to get there, and I’m excited,” he said. “I’m very upset and looking forward to the second revelation.” Arga Cohen from Haifa added that “I am a little excited, because this is an event. I hope that everyone will be vaccinated and then maybe we will be able to get rid of this disease. I am already waiting to see the grandchildren, they are haredi and live in Jerusalem, and I hope they will be vaccinated and everything will go well.”

The director of the Haifa and Western Galilee district at the checkout, Ronen Nodelman, said that for him it was a holiday. “In the Haifa district, there are already two complexes that are working and 20,000 insured people have registered to receive the vaccine. The more vaccines come to Israel, the more complexes will open. We are prepared to open 70 complexes,” he said.

He added that the vaccinators who arrived today are members of the medical staff or citizens in risk groups and aged 60 and over. “Some have booked appointments, and some we have booked because we know them as at risk groups. In order to keep pace, the centers will work from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., including Friday and Saturday. We are currently prepared to vaccinate 500 people in each compound each day. “I hope that in this way Israel will be able to return to routine, that we will be able to return and embrace father and mother.”

Yehudit Hoffman said that as soon as the registration opened, on Friday morning, she “sat on the phone” until she got the turn. “I’m very excited, and part of it is because of all the false rumors. I’m aware that it’s Pike, but it’s making an impact and leaving an effect. I’m very happy and hoped it would come. I could not believe the world was so sophisticated they would reach such an achievement in a short time. I recommend to everyone.

“What do I miss the most? To meet my children and grandchildren who are in Silicon Valley in California and because of this illness they do not come and we do not travel,” she said. “It’s a huge longing. And besides we miss the freedom of us all. We are all restricted, instead of being free we are careful with every meter of going out and are afraid of each other.”

HMO Maccabi has also opened a huge vaccine complex in Haifa, which operates using the drive-in method (“get vaccinated and drive”), in the parking lots of the Sami Ofer Stadium in the south of the city.

At the same time, many senior citizens in the south were excited to be among the first to be vaccinated. “I hope we can all be more liberated soon,” said 73-year-old Shaul Shmilovitz, who was vaccinated at the Clalit Health Fund in Neve Zeev in Be’er Sheva. His wife Drora said she was actually afraid to get vaccinated despite all the credentials, “but I’d rather get vaccinated than be afraid of the corona,” she admitted.

Nora Malmud, 65, arrived with her 97-year-old father Natalio. “When the plague started I was one of the first to come out with a mask. Even then I said that if there were vaccines towards the end of the year – I would like to be among the first. I am biological and know exactly how much it is worth, I should not have been convinced,” she said. Her father added that even he had no doubt that he would be vaccinated after eight months in which he did not leave his home.

The clinic’s chief nursing nurse, Lena Rips, said she had been in intensive preparations for the operation for the past week – and was the first to be vaccinated at the clinic. “I believe in vaccines, and do not understand people who smoke or drink alcohol but are afraid of vaccines. If this is something that can get us out of this crazy crisis – why not do it?”