Rotstein: unvaccinated hospital staff subject to lockdown regulations

Prof. Zev Rotstein, head of Hadassah-University Medical Center expressed his outrage at the lack of supply of vaccines to hospital staff in a letter to Health Ministry director-general Chezy Levy on Wednesday.The letter comes after Hadassah’s decision to consider hospital workers essential if they have received the coronavirus vaccine, in an effort to curb the spread and keep everyone safe.When asked for the rationale behind the decision, Rotstein told The Jerusalem Post that the “new lockdown,” announced due to rising cases, has made this decision necessary.A spokesperson for Hadassah emphasized to the Post that it is within the hospital’s legal bounds to decide who among their staff is essential.This includes 1,700 staff members at Hadassah. Anyone who did receive the vaccine, those who already contracted the disease and have antibodies, and those participating in Israel’s vaccine trials will be allowed to come in to work.“I am pleading in every language I know to please expand the number of vaccines allotted to us,” Rotstein wrote. “If that isn’t an option, please put Hadassah’s staff at top priority for vaccination for today and tomorrow.”Those deemed by Hadassah as non-essential will be subjected to the lockdown regulations that all Israeli citizens will be required to follow. The spokesperson emphasized that the decision was not made to punish those who didn’t already get the vaccine, rather to make sure that the people coming in are as safe as possible, to prevent spreading.“We’ve only received 300 vaccinations today,” exclaimed Rotstein, highlighting the difference in what the hospital requires, and what they received.As such, Hadassah will proceed to function with only the approved staff available. “As of today, we have over 300 workers who are sick with the virus and are isolated,” Rotstein wrote.Israel is set to enter a complete lockdown on Thursday midnight, as coronavirus cases in Israel reach an all-time high, and hospitals struggle to keep up.On Sunday, Hadassah announced that it would have no choice but to shut down its vaccination clinic on Monday because they ran out of vaccines, vaccines that were instead directed to the health funds.“We will bus out our staff to vaccination centers at your discretion,” Rotstein wrote.Hadassah will open a vaccination center on Thursday, in preparation for distributing vaccines, the hospital stated in a press release. These are doses that they had previously requested from the Health Ministry.“The challenge in our hospitals right now is massive,” he said, “We are at 100% capacity, and are caring for 130 coronavirus patients in moderate and critical conditions.”“This is a huge hit to the motivation and morale of the staff. You are making it so much harder for them to cope,” he concluded.