View of an operating room at the new operating department at the hadassah medical center
View of an operating room at the new operating department at the hadassah medical centerYonatan Sindel/Flash90

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected Sunday night a petition by the parents of Hadassah Medical Center’s pediatric cancer patients to approve the opening of a new hemato-oncology department at Jerusalem hospital Shaare Tzedek Medical Center.

The court accepted the position of the Health Ministry, which stated that it would not fund the opening of another cancer department in Jerusalem when all the necessary infrastructure was already in place at Hadassah Medical Center.

Six doctors resigned from Hadassah’s pediatric hemato-oncology unit over a management decision which they claimed was medically unacceptable. The hospital is in financial straits and its administrator had decided to unify the adult and pediatric hemato-oncology wards, a decision the pediatric specialists said was damaging to the children. The hospital did not accept their criticism and attempted to hire new doctors.

Many of the 300 children who were being treated at the hemato-oncology department have been forced to seek treatment outside the capital since the resignations. The parents claim that the children's condition has suffered because of their difficulty in relating to new physicians and the fact that the Hadassah doctors knew each child well and were acutely aware of any changes.