Parents fume at lack of school nurses

The unconscious child had to wait for an ambulance to arrive before receiving medical care.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The issue of the lack of permanent school nurses flared in Haifa last week after a boy tripped over in class and hit his head so hard on a door handle that he was knocked unconscious, reports Yediot Haifa. The unconscious child had to wait for an ambulance to arrive before receiving medical care, causing parents to vent their anger toward the Education Ministry for not funding school nurses, and saying that it is only a matter of time before a tragedy results. According to the report, just one day after the boy hit his head, another student at the same school was hit by a car as he was crossing the road outside the school. That boy also had to wait for an ambulance to arrive before receiving any proper medical care. The school principal said it was a "tragic coincidence" that two incidents had occurred at the same school within a 24-hour period. Both children recovered after being hospitalized, but parents are infuriated at the lack of any school nurse to provide immediate care in the case of an injury. A teachers' representative also said the presence of a nurse would have resulted in each injured child receiving immediate appropriate care, and would have prevented all the other children who saw the accidents from panicking. The teacher said the current system, in which a nurse is present just two days a week, is insufficient and that each school should have its own full-time nurse. No response was reported from the Education Ministry.