Background:
The attack that took place on Saturday, October 7 shocked the residents of Israel and the world. Within hours, it was clear that it was necessary to prepare for an event of a kind that the State of Israel has never experienced. NATAN, which specializes in medical field activities in disaster situations, was organized within 48 hours to operate a humanitarian emergency clinic in the Shefayim Hotel to which survivors of Kibbutz Kfar Aza were evacuated.
The authorities and the health fund faced an extreme situation in which tens of thousands of citizens were evacuated from their homes to hotels in areas where there is no infrastructure to deal with such a large number of evacuees and there is a need for immediate response in the medical field. This situation created fertile ground for cooperation between NATAN , an organization with extensive experience in quickly recruiting medical teams to operate clinics in areas without infrastructure and the health funds that provided physical and computational infrastructures for optimal treatment of evacuees.
Impact:
NATAN’s quick and professional action in this emergency has been greatly appreciated by all professional bodies, health funds, home front command, the Ministry of Health and of course by the thousands of patients who have been treated immediately by the best doctors.
The initial NATAN clinics were established as humanitarian clinics that provided a broad response, with full accessibility during all hours of the day, 7 days a week, to all health insurance policyholders (HMO members). The locations of the clinics were determined by their ability to provide a response to evacuees who are far from the HMO’s response. Hundreds of Natan volunteers who worked in clinics were all experts in their fields, who operated professionally, devotedly and sensitively to a population that was in severe distress during this period.
The organization provides an emergency response, suitable for the immediate and initial stage. This response constitutes a bridge until the HMOs are established to provide a permanent and prolonged response to policyholders.
One of the immediate and egregious needs identified by us was the need for immediate treatment for evacuees who suffered from toothaches. The immediate establishment of the dental clinics in the Dead Sea and Eilat was made possible by the association’s experience in operating mobile dental clinics for refugees abroad and without status in Israel. The required designated equipment was immediately transported to the Dead Sea, and was purchased for the construction of the clinic in Eilat. The dental clinics provided an exclusive response in these areas, to all patients.
The clinics were operated by NATAN volunteers, expert dentists who operated complex specialized systems for providing the best care.
The organization, for its part, managed a multi-dimensional project in which over 260 volunteers from various fields were required to operate in alternate teams. Volunteers were required to arrive for shifts in remote areas, where accommodation, flight, transportation and more were required. And they all did it with love, joy, while providing the utmost support to all patients.
The clinics operated in full cooperation and coordination with the health funds. The collaboration enabled, among other things, NATAN’s volunteer doctors to receive patients through the intake systems, to review medical files, to document the visit, to issue referrals or prescriptions and in this way to provide optimal service.
Impact in numbers:
- During the first three weeks of the war, NATAN established and operated emergency clinics for evacuees from the area surrounding Gaza.
- The project included 3 primary medical clinics (family and children) and 2 dental clinics (at the Dead Sea and Eilat)
- Locations: Shefayim, the Dead Sea and Eilat
- In the 108 days of operation of the clinics, over 3000 patients were treated by 260 Natan volunteers
- 86 were family doctors and children, 51 nurses, 74 dentists, 16 assistants, and 33 operational volunteers.
- Clinics operated continuously between 9:00-19:00, 7 days a week, with maximum accessibility (no pre-appointment) and a policy of “zero bureaucracy.”
Shefayim Clinic
The Shefayim clinic, serving the evacuees of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, began operating on Oct 9th and operated for 19 days under the operational responsibility of NATAN. The doctors and nurses were all NATAN volunteers, working two 6-hour shifts. (Every shift involves a family doctor, a pediatrician, and 2 nurses.) After about three weeks, the clinic was transferred to the management of the Clalit Health Fund, where most kibbutz residents are insured.
The other 2 clinics, at the Dead Sea and in Eilat, served a population of about 2500 people each, most of them evacuated from the city of Sderot. The clinics provided response in the field of family medicine, pediatrics and dentistry.
The Dead Sea Clinic
During its 30-day operation, 669 evacuees were treated by 48 NATAN volunteers.
The Dead Sea Clinic, located in an area where there was no medical infrastructure prior to the evacuation, was established on 13 October, under the operational responsibility of NATAN. The clinic was located, in coordination with the Home Front Command and the Hospital funds in the Southern Hotel area and provided a solution mainly to evacuees staying at Leonardo Club, Leonardo Plaza and Harrods hotels.
NATAN volunteers at the clinic included nurses, family doctors and pediatricians. The volunteer teams arrived for a few days shift and were located nearby. At night, the clinic provided a physician’s service to provide an emergency response. After about 4 weeks of activity, the clinic was transferred to the management of the Clalit Health Fund, during the weekdays.
Eilat Clinic
During its 59-day operation, 953 evacuees were treated by 50 NATAN volunteers.
The Eilat Clinic began operating on 25 October. The clinic was established in coordination with representatives of the Clalit Health Fund, the Eilat Municipality and the Home Front Command, at the Leonardo Resort Hotel, the center of several hotels around it mainly populated by evacuees of Sderot.
The clinic operated 7 days a week by volunteer medical teams: Family nurses and doctors. The medical teams arrived for a few days shift. NATAN was responsible for the flight and accommodation arrangements.
Dental Clinics at the Dead Sea and Eilat
NATAN maintains two mobile dental units, provides assistance in the field of dentistry for populations affected in disaster areas around the world. Immediately after the disaster,on Oct 7, NATAN began recruiting Volunteer Dentists to establish and operate dental clinics in the Dead Sea and Eilat.
In the Dead Sea and Eilat clinics, 1528 patients were treated by 81 volunteer dentists and 16 assistants. During the Dead Sea clinic’s 51-day operation, 672 dentists and 7 assistants were treated by 45 specialist dentists. The Eilat dental clinic operated for 60 days.
The range of treatments is wide, most of them are emergency treatments. Dental care was provided six days a week by volunteer teams of dentists and assistants who work in private clinics. In the absence of a complete public response in the field of dentistry, the demand for treatment is great and the clinics are burdened beyond capacity.
Summary
The Natan Emergency Clinics Project provided a quick and professional response in the field of primary medicine and dentistry. The “secret” of the project is the cooperation between the main authorities and medical bodies in Israel and NATAN, which has extensive experience in operating field clinics and recruiting and managing teams of volunteers. The openness, flexibility, open heart, and spirit of volunteering stood at the foundation of the joint work.
