Hospital funding dispute depriving malnourished children in south

A dispute between the Health Ministry and Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva is delaying the establishment of a clinic to treat eating disorders among children. The patients, who are under-weight, under-nourished, and require intensive medical treatment, have been forced to travel to the center of the country for treatment.

Following the publication of a report in Haaretz a year and a half ago highlighting the lack of these services in the north and south of the country, the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee of the Knesset convened and directed the Health Ministry to develop a plan to provide hospital and out-patient facilities for the outlying population.

The Health Ministry's chief psychiatrist, Yaakov Polkovich, developed a plan to provide hospital facilities for these children in Haifa and Safed in the north, as well as in the south. But no budget has been allocated to make the facilities available in the south.

Polkovich told Haaretz that eight hospital beds for children with eating disorders were planned for Soroka Medical Center, in addition to out-patient facilities for another eight children. He said the Be'er Sheva hospital opposed the plan because it was seeking Health Ministry funding of about NIS 6 million instead for a separate building at the hospital at which these services would be provided. Polkovich said the dispute is ultimately over funding the project.

According to Health Ministry statistics, there are about 70,000 young Israelis, including many adolescents, who are malnourished due to anorexia and bulimia. In recent years, eating disorders have also been noted among young Bedouin residents of the south, who also have to seek treatment in the country's center. The Health Ministry has generally refused to fund travel expenses for these patients and their parents.

The Clalit health maintenance organization, which operates Soroka, indicated it is looking to the Health Ministry for funds. A spokesman for Soroka added "in order to provide comprehensive treatment to children with eating disorders, we are prepared to build a special unit with ten hospital beds and eight out-patient beds. We therefore need full funding for construction, equipment and ongoing operation of the facility. The Health Ministry has proposed providing partial funding which would not provide for the ongoing operation of the building."

Naomi Levenkron specializes in tracking the provision of medical services outside the center of the country.

It was "unfortunate and infuriating that bureaucratic differences of opinion are what is preventing the opening of such an important facility," she said. "The Health Ministry should rise above petty disputes and act to establish this facility in the south."

The Health Ministry said yesterday that although facilities have been opened in the north and center for patients with eating disorders, the opening of the facility in Be'er Sheva has been delayed by the dispute with Soroka Medical Center. The ministry spokesman expressed hope that the center would open within a year.