Unrecognized Bedouin villages have no pediatricians, no gynecologists and no pharmacies

by Ran Reznick

from Haaretz

Some 50,000 children in the Negev are not checked regularly by a pediatrician because there is not a single children's physician among the clinics serving the area's 11 unrecognized Bedouin villages, according to a recent report. 

The report, "Israel's stepchildren," says the deficiency is particularly grave because children in the unrecognized villages have extremely high rates of illness and death. Only 25 percent of the region's children live in these villages, but they account for about 80 percent of the children hospitalized at Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Center every summer. 

The report, by Dr. Haijer Abu Sharb, will be presented Tuesday at a conference organized by Physicians for Human Rights on health care in the unrecognized villages.

In addition to pediatricians, the clinics contain no gynecologists, no other specialists and no pharmacies, the report found. Few of the staff speak Arabic, and the clinics are open only a few hours per week. At the clinics in Bir Hadaj, Algarin and Umm Matnan, for instance, doctors see patients 127 hours per week combined. In the nearby Jewish towns of Omer, Meitar and Lehavim, by contrast, doctors see patients a combined 406 hours per week. 

The Health Ministry said in response that by law, the health maintenance organizations are responsible for supplying health services but it is working with them to reduce the staff shortage - including by offering incentives to nurses and caregivers who work in Bedouin villages. Moreover, it said, efforts to improve health care in these villages are bearing fruit, as proven by a study published last month that showed a decline in infant mortality and a rise in vaccination rates in Bedouin communities. 

Clalit Health Services, which operates most of the clinics in question, pointed out that it is the only HMO to offer services in these villages at all. Each of the clinics is staffed by a doctor, nurse and administrator, it said, and most of the doctors are specialists in family medicine, which includes training in caring for children and the elderly. It also said that about half the doctors in these clinics are Arabic speakers.