Israel’s largest health maintenance organization has launched a novel pilot program aimed at addressing the rise in violence toward medical staff throughout the country.
Clalit Health Services, which insures more than half of Israel’s population, has worked with a private security company, G One, to establish a quick response team to deal with violent or threatening incidents at its community clinics.
As opposed to Clalit’s regional security officers or police, who take considerable time to arrive as they make their way through heavy traffic, the armed response teams on motorcycles can be on the scene at a clinic within a few short minutes of a call for help — hopefully before anyone is hurt.
The pilot began a month ago and is currently operating in the southern and central regions of the country, from Beersheba through Ashdod and up toward and including the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The response teams patrol assigned sectors in the field and can react immediately to an alert.
“We have already seen that it has significantly cut down the response time,” Ofer Ben Menashe, Clalit’s director for personal safety, told the Kan public broadcaster.
Incidents of verbal and physical violence in the Israeli medical system — in both hospitals and community clinics — have increased dramatically in recent years and healthcare professionals do not feel safe doing their jobs.
According to a televised Kan report, there have been nearly 1,000 cases of physical and verbal violence so far this year at Clalit clinics. There were 1,415 cases in 2022.
Patients and their family members have destroyed equipment, and security guards have had to protect medical staff from angry people who have supposedly come for care. They have also had to contend with fights between individuals or groups — some involving weapons — inside and outside medical buildings.
The new security force created for Clalit is managed by highly trained staff at a dedicated hi-tech headquarters at G One that is connected to all the clinics in the pilot. As soon as someone at a clinic presses an alarm button, the headquarters is alerted and guards patrolling nearby are immediately dispatched. Their body cameras document every moment of their motorcycle ride to the clinic and what happens once they get there.
Kan reported that in the mere few weeks that the pilot has been running, the security teams have responded to dozens of violent incidents, as well as a few false alarms. Even when they arrive and find no active incident, they do a full sweep of the building to make sure there are no hidden threats.
“We were surprised — and not in a good way,” said Shachar Bar, a manager at G One.
“The number of incidents we are dealing with daily is really high compared to what one would think would be normal for a medical clinic. Until a month ago, medical staff had to deal with situations that our security personnel are now dealing with. I really don’t know how they managed it,” he said.
Bar added that the arrival of his guards before the police has helped to deescalate tensions and given the medical staff a sense of security.
In January 2023, staff at public hospitals and clinics launched a one-day strike in protest of violent incidents against medical workers. It was not the first such strike by hospitals and medical centers in the past over violence.
“Despite the rising violence, and the number of cases of violence, neither the employers nor the Health Ministry are doing enough to eradicate cases of violence,” the Israeli Medical Association said at the time.
The union demanded that more security guards and police be deployed in hospitals and that they be granted greater powers against offenders. It also demanded stiffer punishments for people convicted of assaulting medical staff.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
