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Page 32 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 14, 1986
Galleria Books, Ltd.
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Pat Balser, Manager
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Rambam Hospital in Haifa
gets liver transplant center
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by Carl Alpert
— HAIFA
Medical science in Israel took
a giant step forward with the
decision to establish a liver
transplant center here in Haifa at
the Rambam Hospital, backed
up by the laboratories of the
Technion Medical School, where
work is being done on the devel
opment of new technology and
its clinical application.
Ministry of Health approval
of the Haifa location was pre
ceded by many months of intense
competition from hospitals in
other parts of the country, which
lobbied vigorously for permission
to open the new facility within
their precincts. The costs involved,
and the need for highly skilled
personnel made it obvious that
Israel could afford only one such
center.
The two major competitors
were the Hadassah Hospital in
Jerusalem, and the Beilinson
Hospital in Petach Tikva, but the
decision was Finally made in favor
Rambam, perhaps for three rea
sons.
One was the presence on its
staff of Dr. Igal Kam, Israel’s
oniy experienced liver transplant
surgeon. A native of Haifa, the
40-year-old Kam has for the past
several years been working at the
Pittsburgh Medical Center, where
human liver transplants were
pioneered. During that period he
took part in several hundred
operations, many of them on
Israeli patients who had come to
Pittsburgh for new livers. The
second reason was the close rela
tionship between Rambam and
the Technion School of Medi
cine, which has pioneered in the
partnership of technology with
medicine.
The third was very likely the
generous decision of the Pitts
burgh Jewish community, through
the local chapter of the American
Technion Society, to raise $500,000
to equip the center and to pro
vide the funds required for the
multidisciplinary research that
is so necessary to assure the con
stant and progressive development
of the unit.
There is no doubt that the new
facility will be a godsend to many
dozens of Israelis who are in need
of such transplants every year,
and cannot afford the expense of
going to Pittsburgh, where local
costs are also higher.
The public battle for Ministry
of Health approval cast some
illumination on the fierce compe
tition which exists among Israel’s
hospitals in many other areas as
well. Each of the major hospitals
is much concerned by its public
image, and constantly seeks to
publicize its achievements and its
needs. One obvious reason for
this is to stimulate greater con
tributions from its friends and
supporters. Another is to en
courage more patients to utilize
its services, since the grants of
public funds for hospital main
tenance are based on the number
of beds times the number of days
they are occupied. Theoretically,
each hospital is assigned an area
that it is supposed to serve, but
a high official in the medical
establishment assured us that the
area assignments are widely vio
lated in the effort to increase
occupancy.
The major hospitals of the
country fall into two catego
ries—those operated directly by
‘LOVE’’ AND
“UNDERSTANDING
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TWO WORDS THAT ARE OUR
FOUNDATION AND OUR PLEDGE
While undoubtedly KING SPRINGS VILLAGE Health Care Center provides the finest
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by providing the ultimate in professional care and a wide range of social and recreational
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That’s why KING SPRINGS VILLAGE Health Care Center provides the
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Our emphasis is always on the quality of life. Extra care . . . Extra service . . .
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Let us show you “love” and “understanding” in action You are warmly invited
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Dave Morgan,
Administrator
Owned By: Henry & Barbara Grossberg
Israel £. Yetra Goldberq
the Ministry of Health, and those
operated by the Histadrut health
fund, KupatCholim. Major gov
ernment hospitals are Tel Hash-
omer, Rambam and the Wolfson
Hospital in Holon. Principal
Kupat Cholim institutions are
Beilinson, Kfar Saba, Carmel
Hospital in Haifa, and the new
est addition, Shaarei Zedek in
Jerusalem. The Hadassah Hos
pital in Jerusalem is in a class by
itself.
During the war in Lebanon the
Rambam Hospital received con
siderable publicity because most
of the casualties were flown di
rectly from the battlefields to its
helicopter pad in Haifa.
The competition does not ex
tend to staff, and there is little
attempt to “raid” the respective
institutions, since the salary scales
are all fixed by national agree
ment and are all the same.
Kidney transplants are now
fairly commonplace here, being
carried out at all major hospitals.
Beilinson is the leader, and this
was emphasized in its bid for the
liver transplant rights.
Is the intense competition based
only on the desire to justify and
enlarge the allocations to their
budgets, in the one case from
government sources, and in the
other, from the Histadrut? An
eminent medical man was quite
frank with us in advancing an
other reason. “Prestige—ego,” he
said simply. Each hospital ad
ministrator, each department
head, is eager to be known. The
basic element of human rights
and ambition play a major role,
he said. After all, they’re human,
like all of us.
If w'e consider the classical
Hebrew adage, that envy among
scholars will result in increase of
wisdom (kinat sofrinx tarbeh
chochma), perhaps this kind of
competition helps to advance
medical science in Israel to the
heights for which it is already
known.
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