The time for summaries is still far but still, a year after COVID-19 erupted and changed the world, one can speak of some insights into the healthcare system.
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The first major change to follow the outbreak was the rise of online remote medicine. The prolonged lockdowns and various restrictions made it impossible for HMOs to continue providing regular medical service, and forced them to expand and improve their digital services.
This concept saves the HMOs quite a bit of time and money, and for many patients it greatly improved the availability of medical service.
However, the HMOs and the Health Ministry must create a system of oversight for digital medical services, as one currently barely existent.
One must also remember that in some areas of medicine and in some medical conditions, remote diagnoses can prove dangerous. A significant part of the public - including the ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, and the elderly, are already dealing with technological barriers, some of which cannot be solved, and they are already encountering difficulty receiving treatment or medical service, including making online doctor's appointments.
HMO executives often underestimate this problem, but the Health Ministry must demand HMOs provide solutions to these populations as they are precisely those who need medical treatment and accompaniment in the most frequent and urgent manner.
Hospitals, for their part, have shown little progress with respect to remote medicine. This is a serious fail especially when it comes to corona patients who in most hospitals have been isolated from their families for weeks, and some have even died without their loved ones around them.
Despite this, most hospitals have not been able to allow for continuous contact between patients and their families by using available technology.
Another aspect touches on public health services: the pandemic has demonstrated, in the harshest of ways, how imperative public health infrastructure is, and how ensuring they are fair and equal to all is important to protecting the lives and health of us all.
This understanding comes after many years in which these services have been undermined and some even privatized. Now is the time for the Health Ministry to once again make public healthcare services a national priority.
On another front, recent years have given a rise to anti-vaccination discourse in Israel and abroad. The pandemic has seen that phenomenon joined forces with those denying that COVID-19 exists, e denial of corona partners.
Education the public on the importance of vaccines must be constant, and after years in which the Health Ministry has failed in this area, it must do better.
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