BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

As part of our program, we also had a six-week seminar on health service management that took place in Oslo, conducted by the director-general of the Norwegian Ministry of Health himself, Dr. Karl Owing, who was also the head of WHO at the time. Owing was a first-rate pedagogue in the public health field. He had been invited to Israel in the 1950s, and upon his return had written a report that praised Israel’s health services. After the Oslo seminar, we went far north to learn about health service issues for the indigenous Saami (“Lap”) population of Finland. 26

The public health program at the University of London included writing a thesis. The topic of my thesis paper was organization of health services in Israel.

Then, at the conclusion of the public health program, my study grant included a tour under the auspices of WHO for a group of five or six participants in all, including me. One was from Jordan, another from Ghana, a third from Poland, and others. We visited Sarajevo, today in Bosnia. As fate would have it, at the time, the Yugoslav dictator Tito had suddenly become bosom buddies with the Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser and consequently there was an Egyptian delegation in Sarajevo during our sojourn. The head of the WHO mission presented me to the Egyptian delegation, and I introduced myself saying “It’s a pleasure. I’m from Israel.” Within a second, the head of our delegation was asking me, somewhat piqued, “Do you always have to mention the fact you’re from Israel?!” The next day, we – both delegations – were invited to a meeting at the Sarajevo Health Service. Six doctors in white coats greeted us in a lab. The lab was in charge of the war against malaria. In the course of discussion, the representative of the Jordanian Health Minister claimed he would have taken the struggle against malaria forward, but Israel refused to cooperate. I responded sharply to counter the canard. Ironically, very quickly I realized that all six of our host doctors were Jewish. In fact, one day back in Israel, I got a call from one of them seeking to consult with me whether to make aliyah . In the end he came to Beer Sheva. District Physician for the Negev I returned to Israel, Neomi and the children having preceded me. Immediately upon my return, my friend Dr. Uri Spearman, who would become my deputy, then inherit my position as Clalit’s regional physician for the Negev, hinted to me 27 that rumors were circulating that Clalit’s regional director was pressuring to put off the retirement of Dr. Shatal, in order to delay my appointment. At the time, the regional director who was not a physician was the one who held all the cards and pulled the strings, controlling without any restraint all aspects of Clalit’s operation including professional decisions. Dr. Tova Yeshurun-Berman, the medical director of Clalit fiercely opposed this delaying move, and such pressures from “the powers that be” failed. Thus, I was appointed regional physician - a position today labeled “medical director” of the region. I served in the position of director of the region in medical matters between 1961-1968. In the course of this work, I also worked once or twice a week as a Clalit primary physician in Tifrach, an agricultural moshav established by members of the religious Agudat Poalei Israel party and populated by ultra-Orthodox ( haredi ) Jews, and moshav Nevatim whose members hailed from Cochin in India. When I would ask the latter "whether their tummy hurt, they would say ‘yes’ even though they intended just the opposite..." so I was forced to request a translator for my medical work.

26 According to the Encyclopea Britanica , such native Laplanders can be found in Norway and Sweden (40,000 and 20,000 respectively, at the end of the 20th century and in even smaller numbers in Finland (6,000) and Russia (2,000). 27 Dr. Leonid (Uri) Spearman, Tuviyahu Archives, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, “Interviews with medical pioneers in the Negev” portfolio

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