Haaretz has found that a steering committee set up by the Health Ministry to examine the outbreak of bacteria strains resistant to all known antibiotics had not been briefed by any hospitals, despite Health Minister Yacov Ben Yizri's statement that it was being "briefed on a daily and hourly" basis by all the hospitals in the country.

Ben Yizri made the announcement at a conference of hospital directors at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

A senior doctor at the conference told Haaretz that "the minister does not always know what he's talking about."

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Sourasky director Gabi Barabash said at the conference that the Health Ministry's handling of the media in this case was "miserable."

Ben Yizri demanded on Thursday a budgetary addition of at least NIS 2.5 billion over a 15-year span to finance the purchase of additional hospital beds at a meeting with senior officials from the Prime Minister's Office over the bacteria outbreak.

Ben Yizri met Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday and briefed him about the bacteria outbreak and the ministry's efforts to contain it. However, unlike his explicit statements at the conference, he did not demand any additional funds from the prime minister. He did not even ask for a budget for the national team to prevent infections, whose formation senior health system figures consider to be critical to contain the spread of resistant bacteria.

As Haaretz reported on Thursday, Carmeli, head of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Sourasky Medical Center, estimated that the annual deaths of 800 to 1000 patients could be prevented.