With the rise of seriously ill patients to over 800, a red flag number for Israel’s health system, the directors of internal medicine wards at Israel’s hospitals say that they’re struggling to treat non-coronavirus patients.

“Of the 111 internal medicine wards at hospitals, over 40% have already been converted into coronavirus wards,” said Dr. Avishai Ellis, head of the Israeli Association of Internal Medicine, said, Channel 12 News reported.

Other medical professionals are concerned about having to release coronavirus patients before they are ready: “We need to create more places and available beds for additional coronavirus patients,” said a doctor at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. “We’re releasing patients who still need oxygen and are still in serious condition according to Health Ministry criteria.”

Dr. Assaf Miller, director of the coronavirus ICU at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, said that he’s most concerned about an insufficient amount of medical staff members.

“Our staff is overworked,” he said. “We’re going to reach a point where the staff-to-patient ratio is insufficient for providing the best level of care and the results could be horrendous. That’s what most concerns me.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ instructed the Health Ministry on Wednesday to prepare hospitals to treat as many as 5,000 seriously ill coronavirus patients. The plan is for hospitals to be prepared for up to 1,500 seriously ill patients now, 3,200 by mid-October, and 5,000 by November.

Although 800 seriously ill patients has been the oft-cited maximum number that Israel’s hospital can treat, hospitals have been preparing in recent weeks to treat over that number by opening additional coronavirus wards and training staff.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)