Doctors at Wolfson: Coronavirus Patients Are Being Neglected

YERUSHALAYIM
Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

A group of doctors at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon have accused the hospital’s coronavirus ward of failing to properly care for patients suffering from the coronavirus, claiming patients in serious condition have died from neglect, Yisrael Hayom reported Monday morning.

The nine doctors complained of a lack of medical equipment, malfunctioning respirators, chronic neglect and mishandling of coronavirus cases which led to patients in the coronavirus ward dying.

The complaint was filed last Monday, with the doctors notifying senior hospital officials, including its director-general, Dr. Anat Engel, who was notified in person in an impromptu meeting in her office.

Patients in distress are said to have waited for hours for their calls for help to nursing staff to be answered, adding that a serious lack of medical equipment has hampered treatment.

In a letter penned by one of the doctors to hospital administrators, one of the nine physicians wrote that the coronavirus ward suffered from a “serious” manpower shortage.

“There are many hours during the day when there is no one working in the respirator room, which is considered to be part of the intensive care ward, and there is no one monitoring the respirators. During this time, the patients are supervised only from outside of the room, via cameras and displays of their monitors, which are frequently disconnected.”

“Not a day goes by that you go into the coronavirus ward without hearing a patient screaming and crying for hours while shaking with cold and asking for a blanket, or because a patient was left in an uncomfortable position and needs help to be put in another position.”

In July, an internal hospital report found that a number of patients at Wolfson had died of poor treatment, rather than the coronavirus itself.

The study, which was conducted by Dr. Aryeh Sorokski, revealed that the coronavirus ward lacked “experienced, veteran doctors,” and that the lack of experienced staff members “led to failures in the ongoing treatment of patients and the monitoring of the patients.”

“In my 25 years of work in intensive care, I have never seen these kinds of mistakes, and the fact that they were allowed to take place points to the lowest level of skill and lack of professionalism.”

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