By David Harris
The Xinhua General News Service
JERUSALEM — Israel’s national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) is accusing “pirate” ambulance crews of stealing its potential patients in order to make a fast buck.
In at least one case, a crew posing as paramedics clearly had no medical knowledge, according to MDA. Police investigation is reportedly already underway.
Allegations of Pseudo-Medics
Israelis in need of emergent medical assistance can dial 101, and then they are to be dealt with by MDA, which will dispatch ambulances from stations all over the country to reach the callers.
However, the organization is alleging that private and non- authorized ambulance crews are using radio-scanning devices to listen to MDA call-out messages. Then they race to the scenes and offer medical assistance usually moments before MDA crews reach the locations.
In one recent case, a team claiming to be an ambulance crew arrived at the scene of an emergency in northern Israel, yet their handling of the situation made police officers at the scene suspicious.
The police quickly realized that the team had no paramedical experience at all and subsequently took them in for questioning, according to MDA spokesman Yerucham Mendola.
In a similar incident, reported by the Israeli newspaper Ha’ aretz, an MDA ambulance team arrived at the scene first to treat a man with a head-shot wound. Yet shortly later arrived another ambulance from a private company, whose crew finally took the injured man away.
“The law in the State of Israel that relates to insurance companies does not specify who should provide the treatment as long as they are a body recognized by the Health Ministry. However, because of a lack supervision, due to insufficient manpower in government ministries among other reasons, all sorts of parties are entering the arena and causing uncorrectable damage to the wounded,” Mendola told Xinhua on Thursday.
He added that the MDA service tries not to get into direct confrontation with what Mendola called “thugs,” but in some cases the MDA paramedics should have tried to help the wounded because of the clear lack of medical knowledge on the part of the private operators.
Correcting the Situation
MDA has filed complaints to the police and is trying to persuade the Health Ministry to become more involved in stopping the practice.
“The Ministry of Health knows about this situation. We asked Magen David Adom to investigate and we are waiting for their reply. Once we have their reply then we will decide what our next steps will be,” said Health Ministry spokeswoman Einav Shimron.
While refraining from commenting on the current cases, Dov Golan, a former director-general of the ministry, suggested that patients or those looking after them should try to request documentation from the ambulance crew to prove that they are legitimate paramedics.
“However, oftentimes the patient will simply be too incapacitated to ask for anything, and, the truth be told, those helping him are also usually unable to ask for appropriate documents,” said Golan.
Role of Hospitals
Once the ambulance leaves the scene of the incident, whether it is operated by MDA or anyone else, it will head for either the nearest hospital or the one with the most appropriate services.
“We receive every patient that comes to us,” said Bishara Bisharaat, a medical director at Nazareth Hospital in northern Israel. He firmly rejects the idea of two ambulance companies arriving at the same incidents and calls for better regulation.
There is no way for hospitals to tell from the brief exchange with ambulance crews whether they are practicing legally or otherwise, nor can one ascertain the level of their medical proficiency, he added.
In best-case scenarios, ambulances call to inform the hospital that they are on the way, but “most of the time we just see the ambulance in front of the hospital. All we do is open the door and take the patient,” said Bisharaat.
Although similar problems do exist in other parts of the world, what is different in Israel is that private crews are putting patients’ lives at risk for financial gain, Mendola noted.
Such newly-emerged and possibly illegal competition is dealing a blow to MDA, which is in constant battle to raise sufficient funds for its 100 emergency medical stations and 11 dispatch centers, which operate around the clock all year long, said Golan.
Copyright 2009 Xinhua News Agency