Government Approves Health Ministry Plan to Strengthen Israel’s North, Worth Hundreds of Millions of Shekels

As part of the “Otef North” program, the government today (Thursday) approved an investment of NIS 329.2 million to strengthen health services in northern Israel. Of the total, NIS 243.2 million will be allocated as a dedicated budget increase, with the remainder coming from the Health Ministry’s own sources. The plan includes investments in hospitals, community medicine, mental health and attracting medical personnel to the region. It is intended to meet the needs of the health system in the north and support the area’s rehabilitation and renewal.

Hospitals to be upgraded include North Medical Center (Poriya), where two psychiatric wards will be established and hospital infrastructure expanded, Ziv Medical Center, where a psychiatric ward for children will be established and access to the inpatient tower improved, Mazor Mental Health Center, where inpatient wards will be renovated and upgraded, and the Scottish Hospital, where a new inpatient floor will be built for the internal medicine department.

As part of the plan, NIS 28 million will be allocated to expand body and mind health programs in local authorities, strengthen community programs dealing with health promotion and prevention, and reinforce resilience efforts and the activity of resilience centers throughout the north. In addition, NIS 112 million will be allocated to strengthen the workforce in the health system in the north, through expanding scholarships and programs to attract doctors and professionals to the region, increasing the number of community residents and students in training, developing excellence tracks, expanding nursing training and increasing the number of physician and specialist nursing fellows in hospitals and in the community. This includes increasing the number of doctors in the north through the “Kochavim” program, alongside a broad personal and professional support package for attracting doctors and health professionals who relocate under the “Ogen” program.

For community services, NIS 55.2 million has been allocated to strengthen, upgrade and expand the range of medical services available in health funds in the central cities, including consulting medicine, mental health, home hospitalization, imaging, new branches and more, to meet population growth. Resources will also be allocated to support child development institutes and to establish two crisis intervention centers at Ziv and Mazor, which will provide accessible, intensive and short-term mental health treatment to prevent psychiatric hospitalization.

Health Minister Haim Katz said, “The decision we approved today joins a series of steps we have taken to strengthen the health system in the north. The investment in infrastructure, workforce and medical services will improve the quality of care for residents, while reducing gaps compared with the center and creating a more accessible and broader response, which is a significant component in the development of the north and its growth in the years ahead.”

Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov said, “Strengthening the health system in the north is one of the ministry’s main goals in the coming years. In the past two years we have seen up close the challenges faced by northern residents and the burden placed on the health system in the region, and this requires us to act in the long term. The plan approved today combines investment in infrastructure and hospitals, expansion of community and mental health services, and a significant strengthening of the medical workforce in the region. Alongside the efforts to rehabilitate, renew and grow the north, it is our duty to ensure that the health system also grows stronger and provides residents with a higher-quality, more accessible and more advanced response. This is not only an investment in buildings and budgets, it is an investment in the residents of the north, in families and in the medical teams who work devotedly every day. The Health Ministry will continue working to narrow gaps and ensure that the health system in the north will be stronger, more accessible and of higher quality.”