MDA commissioner Eli Bin said today on Army Radio that a patient died in an ambulance when no hospital could be found to accept her.
"Patients wait for hours in ambulances. Today a patient from a nursing home died in an ambulance because hospitals did not want to receive her."
He said it was an elderly woman with COVID-19 who was suffering from respiratory complications. No hospital in the entire Jerusalem area agreed to accept her, claiming they had no vacancy. At one point the ambulance crew inserted a device to help with respiration into the trachea; her health deteriorated rapidly and her death was pronounced shortly thereafter.
Ambulance drivers tell Arutz Sheva that recently there has been a lot of congestion in evacuating patients to hospitals. "The hospitals in Jerusalem have asked not to take in any new COVID-19 patients and we are being asked to transport patients to central Israel. This causes a lot of congestion because many vehicles are tied up in transport as opposed to response."