BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

Harzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera 116 Avraham Harzfeld was the head earlier of the powerful central governing board (HaMerkaz HaHakla’i, in Hebrew) of Israel’s farmers and one of the founders of Clalit. 117 Acutely aware of the circumstances of his aging comrades and their need for eldercare, Herzfeld approached Clalit declaring: “I’ll give you the land and you’ll establish a hospital so there will be somewhere to die.” But, as I noted earlier, 118 the antagonism between Prof. Sheba and Moshe Soroka, a combination of personal animosity and political rivalry, boiled over regarding the best location for the convalescent-eldercare facility, with Sheba daring Soroka publicly to have me, the regional physician for the Negev at that time, to decide who was right. This was the last thing I needed since I felt Sheba was correct, objectively speaking, but Soroka was my superior and there were additional issues: Sheba ignored the fact that the convalescence-eldercare facility was Harzfeld’s personal project, that Harzfeld had proposed it, took it forward, and was, in essence, underwriting its construction and calling the shots, including providing the land in Gedera where it would be located. As a result, Clalit was only the executor of the facility. Publicly, I kept mum. But I didn’t think twice about expressing my position on the location in private conversations: All things being equal, I felt it would be best to establish such a facility on the Kaplan Hospital campus as Prof. Sheba had recommended. Dr. Tova Yeshurun Berman had been instrumental in triggering Prof. Arnold Rozin’s aliyah. 119 He became a pioneer of geriatrics in Israel and I brought him to Harzfeld to become its director. He then made it into a top-notch rehabilitative facility. Dentistry in Clalit From the standpoint of a public health care system, dentistry has always been a neglected weak point in Israel’s social insurance coverage. For years, Clalit has opened many public dentistry clinics. While treatment at these clinics is covered only for certain age groups as part of Clalit’s basket of services, fees for all are lower than in private dental practices. 120 Although there are three Clalit dental clinics in Tel Aviv, clinics were established particularly on the periphery and in immigrant communities where the need was most critical. Dentistry has always been in the hands of the private sector in Israel. Until the 1980s, there was a shortage of dentists in the country, and we took in immigrant dentists, some of whom were specially imported from their country of origin. Alas, it didn’t take such newcomers much time to grasp the economic advantages of opening a private practice in lieu of having modest salaried positions at public clinics. Thus, staff retention in the public clinics was poor. There was also a problem of dentists from Romania who did not possess the proper credentials. They did not have conventional dental school degrees. We needed to prevent such individuals from practicing dentistry. This posed a major problem on a national scale because it ran contrary to, and undermined, another national objective – immigrant absorption, or integration of immigrants into the country. 116 Harzfeld Geriatric Medical Center was founded in 1969 to serve as a convalescence home for elderly immigrants and to provide long-term eldercare. Avraham Harzfeld mobilized the resources needed, and Gedera’s local council provided the land. The first director of the hospital was Dr. Arnold Rozin who in 1969 had made aliyah from the UK with his family. In 1983 the convalescence home became a geriatric hospital, and in 1994 its management was integrated with Kaplan Hospital. 117 https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781580461221/the-workers-health-fund-in-eretz-israel/ 118 See Chapter 2 119 Prof. Arnold Rozin (1930- ), born in Scotland, studied medicine in Glasgow and then specialized in geriatrics in London. He immigrated to Israel in 1969. He directed Harzfeld Geriatric Medical Center from 1977-1996 and then the geriatrics department at Shaare Zedek. In 1985, he became a professor at the Hebrew University medical school. In 1982, he founded the Center for Eldercare in the Community to assist Alzheimer patients in Jerusalem, for which received 2010 Jerusalem Key to the City award. 120 For many years the only dental services covered in the market basket of services mandated under Israel’s National Health Insurance Program were treatments for oncology patients prior to and following chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Then in 2010, dental care for children up to age 8 was added to the market basket. This has been expanded progressively over time so that by 2019 children up to age 18 could receive dental care through their health plan. The preventive treatment is free; whereas there is a small charge for treatments considered “preservation.” Then in early 2019 preventive and preservative treatments for persons 75 and older were added to the basket of services. Thus, the coverage of dental services has been expanding but remains incomplete.

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