23 Feb 2024
Dear Friend of the Herzog Medical Center-
Hopefully this finds you well!
The last few months have been anything but routine and our hospital is no different from any other entity in Israel. In fact, hospitals have been very much at the forefront of much of the activity, given the rush of casualties and the "waterfall effect" (the moving of patients from one hospital to another to accommodate the urgent cases).
I am sure that you are very well informed and updated so I shan't "bore you" with details but I did want to give you a bit of good news.
Despite the inevitable delays caused by the war the Jerusalem District Planning Commission met to give their final approval to our hospital's master plan. This is, needless to say, an important hurdle. Although the lack of the final approval didn’t slow us substantially (whereas the war did, inevitably) it is still a critical element in the path to approval of any construction plans.
Within the framework of the “Master Plan”, as approved by the commission, for the future of the Medical Center, we shall be adding:
A 120 bed new Mental Health Center in its own building
A 360 bed Extended Care Facility
A New 360 bed Inpatient Hospital building
A New Education and Administrative Center.
With these additions, the Herzog Medical Center will increase to a 1200 bed facility, doubling the number of beds we currently maintain. The current schedule calls for completion of the project before the end of the decade. Certainly a few busy years ahead.
Interestingly, the approval garnered quite substantial coverage in the press – maybe because "all of a sudden" the lack of medical facilities in general and for mental health in particular, has been very much on the agenda of the media. The widespread recognition of the upcoming "tsunami" in mental health problems in the population as a whole, as a result of the events of Oct. 7th and of the various populations involved directly (survivors, their families, the first responders, participants in the music festival and above all – the hostages) as well as those more on the periphery, has pushed the issues of mental health treatment into the limelight.
As we have been not only talking about this for a long time but also had a real "game plan" ready, this could well explain the sudden interest in our long-term plans in general and our actual projects with detailed plans for the immediate and short term, in particular.
Even the English language media picked up on this in an article in – of all places – a real estate supplement, (a link is given at the end). The article is, unfortunately, replete with inaccuracies regarding details but at least it does "show willing"! The Hebrew media coverage was more extensive.
On a practical level, the Minister of Health and the Director General of the ministry recently visited the hospital to see what can be done to speed up the process and have indicated that they will increase the government grant. In addition, we had a visit from the members of the Health Committee of the Knesset (Parliament) who reinforced that commitment. After almost thirty years in the hospital, and many more in the Israeli health field in general, I'm not a great believer in such promises, but what is evident is the change in attitude, in that there are very rapid and supportive responses from all those involved in planning in the ministry.
Following the hiatus caused by the war, we have reinitiated the thrust to move things forward. The architects and management companies have already been selected and are hard at work drawing up the plans so as to move as fast as possible, especially with the first goal which is the new Mental Health Center. Negotiations with the various teams of engineers and other consultants are reaching conclusion so as to integrate them in the project. Detailed surveying of the site is underway and drilling is due to begin shortly to get a good feel for the geological formations below us.
In the meantime, we are very busy with a number of projects for treating the various populations at risk and, with the numbers of patients in need increasing rapidly, these projects are not a minute too soon. Quite by chance, a couple of weeks before the war broke out, we signed a cooperative agreement with the Ministry of Defense to open the Jerusalem Center for the mental health care of the security forces. This is only the second such center in the country (the main one, until now, was located in Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv, which meant that everyone from across the country had to go there – not very practical and not to mention the waiting list). Another smaller one opened in Ramban hospital to cover the North and now our center will cover the greater Jerusalem area and all of the South of the country. The populations due for care in the center are former security forces personnel (i.e. discharged military, police, Mossad, the General Security Services and probably we shall also include firefighters and other first responders, many of whom are now suffering from issues such as PTSD, depression and anxiety). As a matter of principal, we shall take anyone who turns for help, regardless of whether they are ultimately recognized by the Ministry of Defense and they will be treated at no cost.
A couple of years ago the hospital initiated a special project in the clinic focusing on the age group of 18-25 years old. This was due to the special problems that this group face and which came to the forefront during Covid. Now this clinic has been inundated with youngsters who survived the attack on the music festival and, naturally, fit exactly into that age group. This project is almost entirely funded by charitable donations enabling us to recruit the staff needed to care for these young victims.
Two other special projects have been initiated as a result of the war. One is a project to “help the helpers”. In this project guidance and care are given to the therapists who are facing the thousands of those traumatized by the war and especially the direct victims of the attacks. These survivors faced unbelievable trauma witnessing the atrocities perpetrated by the sadistic attackers. They now related their experiences to the many therapists trying to help them. These therapists are now themselves in many cases suffering from a sort of trauma from the experiences, called “compassion fatigue” and a similar phenomenon called “Moral trauma”. In this project therapists from the Trauma Center (Metiv) and the other clinics train the therapists in the field to deal with these cases and, where necessary, council them in their own care and help with difficult cases. Some 3000 therapists have already been trained and this is an ongoing project, again funded primarily through charitable support.
Last, but certainly not least, due to the ongoing bombardment of the country, both in the south and now in the north, the hospital is urgently expanding the underground emergency hospital, adding an addition 100 beds. This will enable us to admit many more patients evacuated from hospitals under attack, especially in the north. Another 50 beds will hopefully be accommodated in an area beneath the clinic building, a project we are currently and urgently studying with the encouragement of the Ministry of Health and the Home Front Command of the Army.
I think that we can say that there is never a dull moment…..
This update was pretty long but, if you have reached this point, I think that you will agree that there is indeed a lot going on at the moment.
We encourage anyone coming to Israel to visit us. I think that you will find that the visit will be very rewarding and enlightening.
With best wishes and have a good and quiet weekend.
Yehezkel Caine
From the press:
An article in English:https://newsrnd.com/life/2024-01-07-4-new-buildings--3-times-as-many-beds--the-hospital-in-jerusalem-is-preparing-for-a-makeover---voila!-real-estate.SkowHUu_p.html
