Director General of the Ministry of Health and senior ministry officials visits Hillel Yaffe Medical Center

Director General of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Nachman Ash, and senior representatives from his ministry arrived this morning to visit the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center. Director of the Medical Center, Dr. Mickey Dudkiewicz, showed them the hospital’s development in recent years and spoke about the difficulties which the staff encounter, with emphasis on the internal medicine departments. Dr. Dudkiewicz noted the sharp rise in the region’s population growth rate, which requires more departments and medical services, as well as more designated positions in the hospital.

Later, Prof. Ash and his staff, together with the management of the medical center, toured the hospital, including the department where patients confirmed to have coronavirus are hospitalized, the General Intensive Care Unit, and Internal Medicine A, where they saw the great overload which characterizes the situation in general, and during this period in particular.

From right to left: Administrative Director of Hillel Yaffe, Dr. Amnon Ben Moshe; Director General of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Nachman Ash; Director General of the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Dr. Mickey Dudkiewicz; Director of the General Medicine

Prof. Ash spoke to the heads of the departments and the head nurses and heard from them about the day-to-day difficulties and complications in their work. In a conversation with Director of Internal Medicine A Department, Dr. Marinella Beckerman, the latter showed the exceptional overload placed on the medical and nursing teams recently, as well as the great overload in regular times, which can reach over 150% capacity. Prof. Ash noted that he is aware of the existing distress in the internal medicine departments, and he intends to strengthen and add designated positions to these departments. Likewise, he thanked everyone for their hard work, mobilization, and willingness to give the very best care to the patients, despite the difficulties.

The senior members of the Ministry of Health who participated in the tour included the Director of the General Medicine Department, Dr. Sigal Liverant; Chief of Staff to the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Noa Triki, and Deputy of Israeli Head Nurse at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Elza Lavon.