The hospital is expanding to the periphery: it has established the “Reuth in the Community” Rehabilitation Centre in Kiryat Gat which will offer a range of treatments by specialists from the hospital for the general public. The Centre opened in November 2019 and in due course a similar centre will also open in Ashdod.
The Reuth Rehabilitation Hospital Tel Aviv is also expanding to the periphery and launched in November 2019 a new service in the south of Israel under the name “Reuth in the Community”, this after it was successful in a tender of Joint Israel Eshel and the Ministry of Health to establish shelter units in the periphery.
The first medical centre was opened in the “Lev Ha’ir” shopping mall in Kiryat Gat. This is a medical centre, the first of its kind that will constitute an extension of the veteran and largest hospital of its kind operating in Tel Aviv. Thereafter another medical centre is also planned for Ashdod. The new centres will be manned by a multi-professional team from the hospital.
The new medical centre in Kiryat Gat will serve the population living in the town and the surrounding area, and will offer a wide range of treatments with the emphasis on the third age and also on young people including: ambulatory care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapist, geriatric rehabilitation consultation, support by a social worker, consultation with a dietician, complementary rehabilitation medicine, rehabilitation yoga, healthy lifestyle groups and prevention of falling.
The Hospital Director, Dr Dov Albukirk, further stated: The development of the quality of medicine in Israel has led to saving lives and a welcome extension to life expectancy. Rehabilitation medicine enables a dramatic improvement in the quality of life of patients following CVA, traffic accident injuries, cancer patients and more. In Israel there is a fundamental disparity in availability and accessibility of rehabilitation services throughout Israel and in particular in the periphery. Residents in the south of Israel are forced to go to the centre of Israel, also to our hospital in Tel Aviv, in order to receive good quality rehabilitation treatment.
Rehabilitation medicine is critical for one who requires it. In the absence of suitable treatment the risk of deterioration of the patient’s condition increases going so far as requiring invalid nursing. This is a window of opportunities that enables the patient to return to his routine life and enjoy functional independence which includes employment, family and communal life.
I welcome the fruitful collaboration of the hospital with Joint Israel Eshel, the Ministry of Health and BIG shopping malls with the objective of making good quality and professional rehabilitation services accessible to the residents of the south. The Reuth in the Community centres are designed to realize the right to rehabilitation which is awarded to every citizen in the State of Israel and I hope that the success of this challenging project will pave the way for the establishment of further centres in the north and the south”.
According to Yossi Hyman, CEO Joint Eshel: Reuth in the Community is designed to offer a solution for the lack of geriatric rehabilitation services in Israel, a lack that could cause deterioration in the functioning of the older person, an increase in dependency on others, and the need for repetitive hospitalizations, going so far as hospitalization in institutions. This is the sixth centre that we have developed with the Ministry of Health of eight centres in total that will be established by the end of the year, and will constitute a significant addition by 30% to the rehabilitation centres existing at present in Israel. We are happy for the fruitful collaboration with Reuth Rehabilitation Hospital, which will also operate the rehabilitation centre that will be opened in due course in Ashdod”,
