SPONSORED BY HEALTH SECTOR NEWS Israel’s largest COVID-19 facility underground
Due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Israel, Rambam Health Care Campus has opened the country’s largest COVID-19 treatment centre.
COVID-19 patients at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa are now being hospitalised in the Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital, which opened on 24 September for the first time since its 2014 completion. Located 16.5 meters below ground, the dedicated coronavirus treatment centre will contain 770 beds, including 170 for patients on ventilators.
The fully equipped hospital contains an emergency room, theatres, an intensive care unit, three coronavirus departments, a paediatrics area, a delivery room, and a dialysis treatment area. Dr Michael Halberthal, Rambam’s General director, said: “We have invested a great deal of
time and effort in this project, while hoping that we would never be forced to reach this point.”
Rambam began preparing the infrastructure during the first wave of the pandemic, following a request from Israel’s Ministry of Health. The underground hospital was built to be used during biological, chemical, and conventional attacks, protecting those
inside from above-ground threats and contamination. Repurposing the hospital for use as a COVID-19 facility required altering its infrastructure to keep the area outside safe from the virus within. Dr Halberthal said: “Rambam is world- renowned for its expertise in trauma and mass-casualty situations, and our experience in successfully handling these scenarios has helped to ensure our readiness for the current national emergency.”
Established in 1938, Rambam Health Care Campus is a 1,000-bed teaching hospital with a diverse patient population. The only tertiary referral medical centre serving the two million residents of Northern Israel, Rambam also treats patients referred from throughout Israel, the Mediterranean region, and around the world.
Medstor acts quickly to provide COVID ward storage
A very large quantity of consumables was required to cater for the influx of patients into the intensive care units at London hospitals during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as part of this, Medstor was brought in at very short notice to provide HTM 71 high- density storage cabinets for the storerooms serving the critical care and high dependency units at the Royal London Hospital.
The company ‘responded quickly and effectively’ to ensure the hospital had the storage it needed, and helped
establish the capital’s largest critical care facility. As a few COVID-19 patients had already been admitted to one of the new wards when the fit-out started, Medstor installers wore full PPE and followed strict entry and exit rules. ‘Popular in hospitals throughout the UK and overseas’, Medstor HTM 71 high- density cabinets provide ample storage space for a wide variety of essential items, with a ‘unique’ tray and liner system facilitating access to products and monitoring of stock levels. They are available in a wide range of colours, and
as free-standing or wall-fixed options. Medstor said: “The storage solutions supplied to the Royal London are typical of the highly effective products we design for healthcare facilities worldwide Every element of each cabinet, trolley, or racking system has beautifully simple, clean, sleek lines that complement the theatre or ward design, offer increased storage capacity, better cost efficiency through improved stock control, and dramatically enhanced infection control.”
November 2020 Health Estate Journal 15
©Rambam Health Care Campus
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