‘Ready at any moment’: Hospitals in northern Israel preparing for tough war against Hezbollah

Hospitals in Nahariya, Haifa, and Safed have been preparing for extreme scenarios that could break out at any moment as a result of the escalation of tensions along the northern border since October 7.

Prof. Masad Barhoum, director of the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, which is only 10 kilometers from the border, stressed to Walla that “we are preparing in case we don’t have any advance warning. It will be a surprise to everyone because confidentiality and secrecy are a priority.”

“IDF soldiers and northern residents need to know that they have someone to trust,” he said. “We have 775 beds. We have prepared our underground complex for almost seven months. Although we have never had anything like this before, this is the reality – and we don’t have the privilege to ignore it, and we have to face it.

“IDF soldiers and northern residents need to know that they have someone to trust,” he said. “We have 775 beds. We have prepared our underground complex for almost seven months. Although we have never had anything like this before, this is the reality – and we don’t have the privilege to ignore it, and we have to face it.

“My colleagues and I work day by day and hour by hour for this moment. We always knew it would happen, we just didn’t know when. It’s closer now than ever.”

Barhoum explained that “as soon as there is a [full] war with Hezbollah, all hospitals in the State of Israel work as one. There is a unified war room that refers every wounded person, and we can take in every wounded person who is referred to us. Of course, operating rooms are limited, and intensive care is also limited, but there are regulations for all of this.

“The war room will deal with moving the sick and wounded to where they need to be as we absorb and act accordingly,” he said. “We will know how to treat any injured person who arrives. We are prepared for events with many casualties at a very large rate so that we will be able to optimize and prioritize our work and whatever changes need to be made.”

The hospital has been in constant development in recent years, including the opening of new departments and the recruitment of a workforce that already numbers 3,300.

The war that broke out on October 7 created a wave of shock and astonishment among these workers. The very next day, Barhoum called them together for a moment of silence at the helipad. “Our fate is tied to each other,” he began, “this is the front that will win together with everyone.”

Proximity to the border dictates additional challenges for personnel management, including about 500 workers who were evacuated from their homes and those whose spouses are in extended army reserve duty and on standby.

THE UNDERGROUND hospital of the Galilee Medical Center is the first of its kind in the country and was established before the Second Lebanon War at the initiative of the hospital’s director at the time, Prof. Shaul Shasha. Thanks to its establishment, lives were saved then, in 2006, after a missile directly hit the ophthalmology department, which was empty following the move to the underground complex.

A short period of time after the start of the war, a second shock room was built in the emergency department, which allowed for the expansion of the reception of trauma victims, especially those wounded in war. Also, with the cooperation of the IDF, a second airstrip was built to accommodate helicopters carrying the wounded.

In addition, throughout the period, the hospital has been preparing for cyberattack scenarios, which may paralyze the computer systems and cause a transition to manual work.

The Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa is the only medical center defined as a medical “super” center in the North – also in the field of trauma – and according to its management, the only one in the North with the ability to provide the necessary medical treatment in all of its departments for a multi-casualty event.

The medical center was trained two weeks ago by the Home Front Command for exactly this type of scenario – a missile strike with the arrival of 100 casualties at the same time. Rambam’s emergency system is able to treat 11 seriously injured people simultaneously. The emergency room was used for the immediate evacuation of “regular” patients to the wards in order to receive dozens of wounded.

Prof. Mickey Halbertal, director of the Rambam, told Walla: “We hope to soon return to the routine of medical treatment and research – what we are meant to do for the benefit of the community – but we are also ready at any time for extreme events and practice our preparedness regularly. Rambam is a very experienced and very active trauma center, 365 days a year if we need to. I can assure the population of the North that we will meet any task to save lives.”

THE ZIV Medical Center in Safed has also stated its preparedness.

As part of learning the lessons from the Second Lebanon War, it was decided, among other things, to strengthen the hospital’s trauma system. The hospital underwent a comprehensive renovation in recent years, in which all the departments were upgraded, including the emergency medicine department. It still does not have an underground hospital, but in the meantime, according to estimates, 250-300 beds are already placed in protected spaces.

Ziv is of special strategic importance due to its proximity to the scenes of battle in Lebanon or the Golan Heights. Wounded people are constantly being sent to the medical center by airlift to the designated air strip. Since the beginning of the war, about 220 soldiers and civilians have been treated at Ziv, which makes it one of the leading medical centers in the reception and treatment of battle casualties in the North.

“Since October, we have been in emergency preparedness and have not neglected routine treatments for a moment,” its director Prof. Salman Zarka told Walla, adding that “Ziv is prepared for scenarios in the North with great support from the Health Ministry and mainly based on the excellent, professional and trained staff.”