ICU beds at Shaare Zedek are set to double in the leadup to winter
Shaare Zedek Medical Center is one of Israel’s leaders in the response to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Director General Prof Ofer Merin and President of Shaare Zedek Prof Jonathan Halevy recently reported that Israel has a unique distinction as a country with a continued troublingly high rate of infection but a relatively low mortality rate when compared to other countries.
“The flip-side of this positive trend,” they noted, “is that it somewhat hides the incredible burden this pandemic is taking on our hospital system. People may naturally look at the relatively low numbers of intubated patients and infer that the hospitals are not being inundated with patients. That is sadly not the case and it would be incorrect to underestimate the extent of this challenge.
“The hospital’s resources are stretched ever more thinly and the challenges only grow by the day. We are providing both Jerusalem residents, and patients from all over Israel alike, our usual top-quality medical care for a myriad of medical conditions.
“We continue to stand in awe at our medical and logistical staff on all levels for their continued unwavering efforts to provide the uncompromised care for which Shaare Zedek is so famous.”
Shaare Zedek recently hosted Prime Minister Netanyahu for a tour of its facilities with a focus on the hospital’s Covid-19 response programs.
This was Prime Minister Netanyahu’s first Corona hospital visit ever and it paid tribute to the centrality of Shaare Zedek’s role in this battle.
Shaare Zedek recently discharged a 74 year old patient who left the hospital after 99 days in the Corona unit. The hospital staff believes this is the longest stay of any Corona patient in hospitalized isolation in the world and certainly view her case as an indication of Shaare Zedek’s commitment to do everything necessary to care for the victims of this virus.
The hospital’s focus is now on preparation for the coming months which it acknowledges will be extremely difficult ones.
This reality has obligated the hospital to regroup for the next few months and to be prepared for a significantly higher number of patients than in other winters, by adding beds to and increasing the size of the ICU.
