10 Things about Israeli healthcare you might not know
The following image represents a reality that plays out daily, in almost every hospital in Israel, including now, where medical professionals, doctors and nurses work on the frontlines against this deadly virus, regardless of religion, nationality or ethnicity.
The situation is hardly known outside Israel and you will certainly not see it documented by the global media, who prefer to exhibit Israel as a place of war, conflict and hatred. My wife worked in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for 8 years and I also had the privelege of working there for a brief period in 2018 and we both saw this up-close during our workday.
The following are ten facts about the Israeli healthcare system that you won’t see in the media:
- Every year approximately 100,000 Palestinians are treated in Israeli hospitals.
- Approximately 20% of doctors and nurses in Israel are Israeli Arabs.
- Jews, Muslim and Christian patients receive equal treatment throughout all Israeli hospitals.
- Approximately 30% of children patients in Hadassah Hospital, in Jerusalem, at any given moment, are Palestinian.
- Israeli Arab doctors are mostly educated and trained in Israeli universities.
- Over 250 Palestinian doctors have been trained in Israel.
- Arab doctors also head departments in Israeli hospitals including Dr. Abed Khalaileh, a Palestinian surgeon and the Director of the Kidney Transplantation Department at Hadassah and Dr. Masad Barhoum, director general of Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya
- Soroka Hospital in the Negev specialize in treating the Bedouin population in Israel.
- Following terrorist attacks in Israel, both the victims and perpetrators of the attacks receive equal treatment, in Israeli hospitals, often beds apart.
- Israel saves more Palestinian life than probably any other country or entity worldwide.
Photo Credit: Muslim and Jewish doctors working side by side at NICU, Shaare Zedek Hospital. (Shaare Zedek Hospital)
