קורונה
קורונהצילום: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Senior doctors in Israeli hospitals have reiterated their warning that the overwhelming number of coronavirus patients is forcing subpar treatment for some of them.

"Already now hospitals in Israel are forced to make choices and prioritize some of the coronavirus patients," doctors told Israel Hayom.

The doctors said that they are forced to make impossible choices and decide which critically-ill patients will be hooked up to an ECMO machine, and which patients will not be hooked up to an ECMO because there are not enough machines for them.

The doctors also said that they are forced to choose which patients in very serious condition and are hooked up to ventilators will have a bed in the coronavirus ICU, and which will not receive a bed in the proper ward and will be treated instead by doctors and nurses who are less skilled and experienced in treating intubated patients,

Dr. Orly Weinstein, Deputy Director at Clalit Health Services and responsible for approximately half of Israel's hospitals, issued the warning Sunday at a meeting of hospital directors with Health Ministry Director General Professor Nachman Ash.

The serious warning, unprecedented during the current coronavirus wave, was made following a statement by Professor Masad Barhoum, General Director of the Galilee Medical Center, who warned at the meeting: "We are very close to a situation in which we will have to choose and prioritize patients in the coronavirus wards."

According to the directors and senior doctors in the hospitals, Dr. Weinstein's unprecedented statement was made following conversations with directors of Clalit's hospitals, some of whom have warned that they are already forced to choose between patients.

The officials also warned that the difficult situation of insufficiency and patient deaths due to a lack of beds in the ICU and lack of ECMO machines has affected most of Israel's hospitals in recent days - both those owned by Clalit and those owned by the Health Ministry, Israel Hayom added.

Earlier this month, several senior doctors have warned that the level of care in the coronavirus wards was dropping, and some of the hospitals had reached insufficiency levels.

Last week, Dr. Noa Eliakim-Raz, director of the COVID-19 Internal Medicine Department at Beilinson Hospital, warned that ICUs around Israel were being flooded and had reached insufficiency.