Former Health Ministry Comptroller Aryeh Paz, who investigated my incidents of medical negligence and corruption, told Israel Hayom that the findings from its expose on Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Center are "horrific - and they mean risking patients' lives."
On Thursday, Israel Hayom published an article showing that internships in Soroka's plastic surgery and urology units were managed in a way that endangered the lives of hundreds of patients. Examples included allowing completely inexperienced interns to perform operations on patients without the supervision of senior doctors, allowing interns to diagnose and treat patients without the obligatory presence of a senior doctor, and the cancellation of operations due to misdiagnosis. In addition, both interns and senior doctors signed false operation reports, which stated that doctors who did not perform operations did in fact perform them. Other findings showed that the departments did not do professional follow-up, and arguments among doctors harmed the department and the medical care offered.
Paz, who served as Comptroller for thirty years, told Israel Hayom: "These findings raise concerns that expert doctors are trained with medical norms and behaviors that are based on lies, and the creation of medicine which may be of the worst kind. The doctors' patterns of behavior are problematic, place patients' health at risk, and contradict every norm of ethical behavior, which doctors are obligated to uphold."
"There is a serious concern that severe damage has been done to the public interests and welfare - meaning, to the public's lives. The Health Ministry must take severe action against those involved in this issue, and begin investigating all the hospitals."
He also noted the concern that there may be a lack of supervision and inspections by Soroka's management, the Clalit health fund which owns the hospital, and the Health Ministry itself, as well as concerns that some of the complaints submitted over the years may have been covered up.
Soroka told Israel Hayom: "The hospital management, together with the new managers of the urology and plastic surgery, is working to implement the recommendations noted in the Scientific Council's reports. This activity caused these two departments to become fully recognized for internships, after the Council found them to be praiseworthy."