Haifa's Rambam Hospital is planning a 20-floor tower which will be owned by a private company K.M.R. (Promoting Medical Centers), which was set up by the Rambam Hospital Friends Association. If built then this will be the first time in Israel that a private organization builds and operates a medical facility in the heart of a public hospital.
Senior figures in the Ministries of Finance, Health and Justice have been working intensively in recent weeks with one aim: to prevent the bursting of the last dam as private bodies attempting to take control of real estate and facilities at a hospital financed from public funds.
There has been a similar struggle recently as the management of Rambam Hospital, the board of trustees, friends association and K.M.R. have sought to build an underground car park with 2,000 places that will be used as an emergency facility during a war or if missiles are falling on the north. Here too there is a confrontation between the government and the hospital's management.
The tower that Rambam hospital wants to build is described as a "Tower for Research and Discoveries" but the concern is that it will be used for private medical services and perhaps even for medical tourism.
All this would be occurring through a privately owned company, without supervision in the heart of a government owned hospital financed by the State. Although K.M.R. is defined as a company "for the public good" it is privately owned with private managers and directors and its donors demand that it remain private while it manages the building it plans to construct.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 22, 2013
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