Health minister blames Netanyahu for health system's problems

• Published date: 26 September 2021
• Author: ROSSELLA TERCATIN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"The healthcare system and hospitals have been starved by Netanyahu and Litzman," Horowitz said, while visiting the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon on Sunday. "They have suffered from neglect and deliberate abandonment for many years. There is a shortage of beds, manpower and resources. I am working to fix this, to bring more permanent staff to the system and a change in the health budget."

In the past few days, hospitals have decried a lack of specialized staff and equipment necessary to treat the rising number of patients in critical condition. They have been especially disturbed by the lack of ECMO machines, also known as "heart-lung machines," which require constant supervision.

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While the number of patients in serious condition has been relatively stable, fluctuating between 650 and 740 in the past month – 711 as of Sunday – the number of patients who require ventilation has been on the rise. On Sunday it stood at 215, after reaching 221 on Saturday night, the highest since March.

"There is no reason the healthcare system in Israel should always be stretched to its limit, and I am determined to change that," Horowitz said.

Israel registered 2,616 new cases on Saturday, according to a Sunday update by the Health Ministry, with 3.96% of the almost 70,000 people screened identified positive for the coronavirus.

Both figures marked the lowest in over a month. Those figures have been affected by the Jewish holidays, which began on September 6. Health trends during the period have been significantly affected by the resulting limited number of regular school days and workdays.

As a result, the number of daily cases has varied greatly in the past three weeks, with the number of tests performed ranging between 55,000 and 185,000. The outcome has been as few as 3,000 up to over 10,000 virus carriers identified in a single day.

Fortunately, the reproduction rate, or R, has been trending downward.

The rate represents how many people each virus carrier has infected on average and mirrors the situation of only about 10 days before.

When the R stands above 1, the disease is considered to be spreading, because every case generates more than one case. When it is below 1, it is a sign that the number of cases is decreasing.

As of Sunday, R stood at 0.81.

IN THE past few days, however, health officials have warned that the outbreak is...