The condition of the Health Ministry’s Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv is dilapidated and seriously understaffed due to low salaries already in normal times. In an emergency such as now during the war against Hamas, it is even worse.
The Knesset Health Committee, headed by Shas MK Yonatan Mishraki, heard about this during a meeting on Tuesday and demanded that within a week the Finance Ministry must present to it a plan for immediate incentives to recruit additional forensic doctors every year, raising salaries, and upgrading the facilities.
Forensic medicine is a specialization within medicine that applies the principles and knowledge of the medical sciences to help resolve issues in the legal field. Opinions are sometimes oriented to the criminal aspect, and their findings can be the basis for charging a person with causing bodily harm, damage, or death. In other instances, forensic medicine also assists with civil law.
The national center, subordinate to the ministry’s medical administration, is the only one of its kind in Israel and is affiliated with Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine.
Among its many functions are:
• Investigation of the cause and mechanism of death including the identity of a victim, where and when the death occurred; what types of trauma and damage were sustained by the victim; and the means and cause of death.
• Help in the investigation of serious crimes such as murder using DNA testing and finding a connection between crime scene findings and the body and those involved in the incident.
• Identification of bodies and unidentified persons.
• Assistance in finding missing persons.
• Examination of bodies at the scene where they are found.
• Supervision and control of exhumation of bodies after a court order has been issued.
• Clinical examination, and assessment of damage and injury to victims of sexual and physical assault.• Assessment of the biological age of deceased or live persons.
• Paternity testing under the provisions of a court order.• Testifying in court.
• Teaching of forensic medicine in schools of medicine and departments of law, and guidance on forensic issues to the Israel Police and the Justice Ministry.
• Forensic research and the training of pediatricians and gynecologists in the identification of victims of sexual and physical violence, and of doctors undergoing specialization in forensic medicine.
According to Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, who initiated the discussion, the institute can’t function properly due to a dilapidated structure, under-budgeting, and lack of personnel. It had to identify the bodies and body parts of many of those murdered by Hamas terrorists in the past six weeks.
Beliak maintained that the institute’s manpower is only 10% to 15% of what is accepted in the Western world, where there is a forensic doctor for every 100,000 to 200,000 people, so here in Israel, there should be at least 50 doctors specializing in forensic medicine.
The Abu Kabir Institute has only six specialist doctors, two interns, five technicians, two secretaries, and one photographer. The acute shortage of manpower and the lack of suitable resources harms the institute’s ability to function properly, he charged.
The institute’s director, Dr. Chen Kugel told the committee that when the Hamas incursion and slaughter became clear, nine foreign forensic doctors were recruited temporarily, as well as 40 radiologists, DNA experts, and anthropologists. But they will leave.
“Israel must prepare for such heavy disasters. The ministry set down work standards, but doctors do not want to come because of poor wage agreements and conditions. Fifteen years ago, there were 15 doctors. Today, of the eight pathologists, two are about to leave,” he said, adding that in any case, “the building itself cannot hold more doctors due to its size.”
Dr. Maya Furman, head of the center’s legal pathology unit, complained to the Knesset committee about the delay in providing legal and criminal reports due to the acute shortage of forensic doctors.
Dobi Weisenstern, secretary-general of the search and rescue organization ZAKA, warned about the poor salary conditions of the center’s employees. “You talk about the dignity of the dead, but you are dishonoring the dignity of the living.”
Alon Crispil, the chairman of the Association of Forensic Doctors, warned that now there will be no investigation into the cause of death of IDF soldiers, and despite about 40 interns coming to the institute every year, they don’t remain to work there because of the low salaries.
Dr. Ze’ev Feldman, chairman of the state employee doctors’ organization, claimed that the Finance Ministry’s official in charge of salaries failed to show flexibility to solve the crisis.
During the previous discussion on the subject in the committee about half a year ago, it demanded a national plan as a government decision that would be budgeted and include the establishment of another institute of forensic medicine in the Galilee region; the rapid promotion of the establishment of a new and advanced campus for the institute; better salaries and terms of employment for the pathologists and medical staff; training and the specialization of pathologists; and establishing the institute as a statutory body or an independent administrative unit. But nothing came of it.
Shani Sharvit, the Health Ministry’s deputy director-general of human resources and administration, said the planning of the new institute structure will begin soon and that the issue is “of the highest priority,” but she admitted that these are still unsatisfactory.
Daniel Tor, a representative of the Treasury’s wages division, said that anyone who worked at Abu Kabir during the last month will be paid and that “speedy negotiations are underway to reach a salary agreement.”