{"id":335,"date":"2022-04-04T14:27:56","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alontal.brandale.co.il\/?p=335"},"modified":"2022-04-04T14:27:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:27:56","slug":"health-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/?p=335&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Health Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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  1. Israel has a very good health system. Perhaps the most fundamental indicator of this is the high life expectancy of Israeli citizens: over 83 \u2013 ranked ninth in the world.\u00a0 Since the state was established 73 years ago, its residents live about 16 years longer on average.\u00a0 That is an impressive figure.\u00a0 And it didn\u2019t happen by itself.\u00a0 Very talented health professionals worked \u2013 and continue to work – for relatively modest remuneration. They are worthy of our praise and appreciation.\u00a0 At the same time, as the country becomes wealthier, we can \u2013 and need \u2013 to improve many areas of the health system in order to ensure the best possible care for the citizens of Israel.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. In practice, health care expenditures, as a percentage of GNP and government budgeting, is low by the standards of developed countries.\u00a0 At the same time <\/span>private expenditures <\/span><\/i>are considerably higher.\u00a0 This suggests that a warped reality is emerging in which citizens who live in the right part of the country, with the resources to upgrade basic services provided by the national health system, receive better access, better care and better life expectancy than other citizens. \u00a0 For example, Arab men in Israel live 7.5 years less than Jewish men. Part of the reason is linked to lifestyle, or smoking rates. But the gap is primarily linked to access to and quality of available medical services.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The crowdedness in Israeli hospitals is among the highest in the West.\u00a0 When the British left the country in 1948, there were more than 3 hospital beds per 1000 citizens. Today the number has fallen below 2 \u2013 a drop of some 33%.\u00a0 We must significantly increase the capacity of Israeli hospitals.\u00a0 The aging of Israel\u2019s populace, along with a 2% annual increase in population size create a situation where already several hospitals frequently operate above 100% occupancy. \u00a0 Patients sleeping in beds in hospital corridors is no longer a rare phenomenon. And it is expanding.\u00a0 Israel must build four new hospitals during the next ten years, mainly in the geographic periphery. \u00a0 The government\u2019s decision to establish a hospital in Kiriyat Ata by 2029 is a good first step in this direction.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. There is not only a shortage of beds in Israel \u2013 but also of medical staff.\u00a0 Israel has less than 6 nurses per 1000 people. In Norway the number is 20.\u00a0 Israeli doctors are by far the oldest in the world \u2013 apparently it is simply impossible to let them retire, given prevailing scarcity.\u00a0 Ironically, Israel trains fewer doctors per capita than any other Western nation.\u00a0 As a result, 60% of Israeli doctors studied medicine outside the country. In many cases, the professional training there is inferior to that in Israel.\u00a0 Israel needs to double the places available in its medical schools for all health professions, starting with doctors.\u00a0 As a first step, government funding for any Israeli university program that trains the hundreds of foreign students who study in the country\u2019s international medical schools every year, should be cancelled.\u00a0 When there is such an acute shortage of human resources, it constitutes an irrational policy that harms the future of the health system.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. It is clear that a significant part of the country\u2019s future health strategy needs to include strengthening the medical infrastructure in Israeli communities.\u00a0 It won\u2019t happen by itself.\u00a0 A five-year plan for expanding local health infrastructure across the country so that a citizen who chooses to receive community care, medical advice \u201con line\u201d or even home hospitalization will not pay a price in terms of health outcome for their decision.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. The income of senior Israel doctors and health care works is not high in Israel. But neither is it low by international standards.\u00a0 At the same time, during the first years of their careers, the pay for nurses is extremely low. This is also true for medical interns and residents. There is also a significant gap in the earnings of male and female nurses.\u00a0 Salaries for young health professionals need to be increased in order to prevent young professionals from \u201cdropping out\u201d.\u00a0 Israel needs to guarantee that talented people do not give up a career in health care because the anticipated income is low.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The absolute consensus in medical research is that with less than eight hours of sleep, human functions begin to deteriorate.\u00a0 The less people sleep, the more their physical and mental performance decreases.\u00a0 Israeli interns and residents are on call for 26 hours continuously.\u00a0 Many complete ten such marathon shifts a month.\u00a0 The level of care offered by a doctor after a sleepless night is hardly optimal \u2013 to put it mildly. \u00a0 The mounting protest of young physicians about these conditions is justified: we need to accelerate the transition to shorter shifts for interns and offer them some semblance of a normal life \u2013 while offering Israeli citizens better health care.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. The Covid epidemic has made it clear how vulnerable Israel is to global pandemics \u2013 a phenomenon which does not appear to be ephemeral.\u00a0 Among the lessons learned during the Covid crisis is the significance of a rapid, professional and measured response that integrates all possible partners, including the military.\u00a0 It is essential to present precise information to the general-public effectively, in real time, while debunking fake news. Mostly, decisions made during health crises must rely on empirical, evidence-based assessments made by health professionals rather than politicians.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Air pollution and other environmental hazards continue to increase morbidity for a large segment of the Israeli public, even contributing to mortality.\u00a0 According to recent research,\u00a0 in Haifa alone, some 3000 citizens develop serious illness due to air pollution each year. One hundred of them die.\u00a0 Many pollution sources remain unregulated in Israel. \u00a0 Such an example is wood-burning stoves that emit a third of the country\u2019s hazardous air pollutants during the winter months. The Ministry of Environmental Protection in practice does not address the problem.\u00a0 In general, the Ministry lacks environmental health experts and therefore does not always prioritize the most significant health risks in its ministerial agenda. In addition, in contrast to many countries, there are no health impact assessments prepared during the physical planning process.\u00a0 We need to change this. These are areas focus on as chair of the Knesset subcommittee for environmental and climate impacts on health.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. At the end of the day, public health will improve as a result of lifestyle change and the adoption of healthy habits, including eating right and exercising regularly.\u00a0 These are habits which can be inculcated from a young age.\u00a0 Awareness about these dynamics in Israel is actually improving in all of sectors of society who increasingly recognize the importance of a healthy lifestyle.\u00a0 This trend needs to be strengthened.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Israel has a very good health system. Perhaps the most fundamental indicator of this is the high life expectancy of Israeli citizens: over 83 \u2013 ranked ninth in the world.\u00a0 Since the state was established 73 years ago, its residents live about 16 years longer on average.\u00a0 That is an impressive figure.\u00a0 And it didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-agenda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}