Haaretz probe: Hospitals didn't brief Health Min. on deadly bacteria
Finding contradicts health minister's statement that ministry c'tee is being briefed hourly by all hospitals.
By Ran ReznickHaaretz 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."
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.
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While no signs were posted on hospital walls to warn patients of a deadly virus raging on their wards, most labor wards are plastered with signs warning mothers against taking a labor coach along for a birth-unless it is someone 'trained' by the hospital; signed by no less a personage than the Minister of Health. How low will those in charge of health care stoop to protect thier own interests and keep inside information away from prying eyes? Medical abuse of power is far reaching - and very dangerous. Thanks for letting us peak behind the teflon shield of a health care system of elite cargivers who have forgotten that they are here to serve their patients - not vice versa.
Anybody can tell me the name of the bacteria. My mother died in a hospital in Israel due to a bacterial infection Thanks
Our solution to hospital overcrowding: just let weak patients die. It works to ease emergency room crowding, not to mention too many patientants' visitors; they stay away out of fear.
Thanks Haaretz and keep on digging as we had to lose our most precious mother, mother in law and grandmother due to a deadly bacteria infection she probably got at Asuta Hospital in Petach Tikwa during a standard medical procedure
Please could we have some more details? Such as what kind of bacteria is it? Is it MRSA which affects us so badly in the UK (and is treatable by a few antibiotics), or XDR TB which as far as I know isn't? Or any other bug? And I guess it would also be good to know the extent of the outbreak, and maybe how dangerous the infection is to those who catch it.