A Yisrael Hayom report on Tuesday revealed that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett instructed senior Health Ministry officials to compromise on standards of healthcare in order to reach “certain numbers.” Dr. Miki Halbertal, director of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, participated in meetings last week with Bennett and senior officials from the Health and Finance Ministries. Halbertal said that during a discussion about the capability [or incapability] of hospitals to treat hundreds to thousands of severely ill coronavirus patients, the atmosphere became very tense, with Bennett and other senior government officials placing a tremendous amount of pressure on coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash and other senior health officials. “We need to reach these numbers,” Bennett said. “Compromise, lower the standards – everything is acceptable.” Other officials at the meeting told Bennett: “If we truly reach these numbers and people begin to die on the street, no one will ever vote for you again. Think about what you’re saying.” Dr. Halbertal said that Bennett persisted with his plan. “Senior government officials issued a directive that the health care system must provide a solution for a ‘red’ scenario of 2,400 severely ill patients. But the Finance Ministry is not interested in providing funds for it. I told Bennett: ‘You can’t expect us to provide solutions without giving us resources.'” “I told them that we can’t currently treat even 1,200 severely ill patients. We have 60 beds in Rambam and they told me I need to have 270 beds. I said I can’t do that.” “I told Bennett that the government has thrown the hospitals to the dogs with the existing budget and if I don’t resist, then the doctors and nurses will resist. Everyone is fed up.” Dr. Halbertal added that hospitals’ coronavirus wards are already overflowing and unlike the third wave, which subsided due to Israel’s vaccination campaign, this time there is no solution in sight. Is is truly frightening how this report, accompanied by others, shows how Bennett and Finance Minister Avigdor Leiberman have much more “important things” on their agenda than saving human lives. And the same applies to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and other senior government officials, who haven’t even bothered to be involved in discussions on the coronavirus crisis. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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