Today (Thursday) the Ministry of Health announced its decision after a hearing held for the insemination unit in Asuta Ramat Hay’il in which the heads of “Assuta” and the hospital’s legal counsel were present.
Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, head of the medical division at the Ministry of Health who conducted the hearings as well as the in-depth investigation on this issue, examined the set of data including administrative deficiencies in the field of treatment safety, including the management and investigation of unusual events at the Assuta Ramat Ha’ayil Medical Center, two significant events that are the same with a difference of individual months and the treatment of these incidents by the hospital, as well as due to the manner in which the information received regarding the third incident was handled.
Dr. Mizrahi is convinced that these failures are related to a poor organizational culture in the field of treatment safety, as well as to high workloads in the IVF unit, which undoubtedly contributed to harm to patients.
Accordingly, and according to the Public Health Ordinance, it was decided that:
1. The director of the hospital or the management of the Assuta network must appoint a senior external accompanying person from the field of treatment safety, with the aim of bringing about a change in the problematic organizational culture regarding treatment safety and assisting the hospital in updating procedures and implementing them, and instilling a culture of safety and reporting and management of unusual events in the hospital.
2. Reducing the activity carried out in the in vitro fertilization units at the hospital as follows:
– Do not perform more than 25 operations (egg extractions and embryo retrievals) in a working day.
– The reception of new patients in the in vitro fertilization unit at the hospital will be stopped immediately.
– The work in the IVF unit (including in the laboratory) must be finished by 11:00 p.m.
All of this – until further notice, in order to make sure that the scope of activity corresponds to the required standard, and that the unit is run in a way that does not endanger public health or harm public health and patients’ rights.
The Ministry of Health stated: “A proposal must be submitted for the appointment of an external supporter and an orderly plan for its activities will be submitted to the Ministry of Health for review and approval. Failure to submit an offer and plan as mentioned may lead to more serious measures being taken. These instructions will be re-examined after the work of the inspection committee has been completed, its findings and conclusions have been received and subject to a repeat inspection at the in vitro fertilization unit.”
