NCC calls for dumping 'disastrous' school health service privatization program

Director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman says secret Health Ministry internal report has shown "disastrous results."

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
kids at school 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
kids at school 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The National Council for the Child called on Wednesday for the abrogation of the Treasury-backed program that privatized the national school health service almost two years ago, and for returning responsibility for it to the Health Ministry. NCC director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman was commenting on a secret Health Ministry internal report he said had shown "disastrous results" from the handover of such responsibility to the Association for Public Health, headed by Aharon Cohen, a former Health Ministry official. The Health Ministry, which did not release the internal report to the press, would only say that the report was a "summary of supervisory reports by the ministry of the association's activities in the schools." The report was sent to the nonprofit association for comment. There will then be a discussion in the ministry for a decision on its policy in the future, said the ministry spokeswoman. Kadman said that the NCC had opposed the Finance Ministry's privatization policy from the start and was certain it would eliminate the tradition of a school nurse serving in every educational institution not only to vaccinate children and give them regular examinations, but also to educate them about disease prevention, avoiding smoking and drugs and adopting healthful lifestyles. Three Knesset committees decided a few months ago to restore the provision of school health services to the Health Ministry and cancel the agreement with the association, but nothing was done. "Unfortunately we were right," noted Kadman. The NCC received a copy of the Health Ministry's internal report and said that the privatized school health service was "on the verge of collapse, and its functioning is poor and even dangerous." The quality of manpower, planning, vaccine coverage and reporting is poor, Kadman said, and some vaccines are stored under improper conditions. There is inadequate documentation of vaccination, lack of training and cooperation with parents and a refusal to accept state supervision, Kadman said, quoting the internal report. Thus the association should be shut down "immediately" and responsibility for the school health service restored to the Health Ministry and its public nurses and doctors, Kadman demanded. He called on the Knesset Education, Children's Rights, and Labor, Social Affairs and Health committees to hold an urgent joint session to discuss the report and support the call for canceling privatization. Although the Health Ministry was forced to give in to the Treasury on privatization, Kadman said that he was disappointed and shocked by the "Health Ministry's chronic stuttering and the fact that while it claimed it was 'raped' into the transfer of authority, it continued the process despite the highly negative report." The ministry, he said, "had even begun claim the reform brought about 'improvements' - instead of reaching the clear conclusion that the criminal privatization of school health services be canceled immediately."