Collapsing under load, national forensic center closes for a day
With only three doctors available, Abu Kabir struggles to handle the 21 bodies brought in over weekend
Renee Ghert-Zand is the health reporter and a feature writer for The Times of Israel.
The National Center of Forensic Medicine announced on Sunday that it would not accept more bodies for 24 hours. According to reports in several Hebrew-language new outlets, the center is on the verge of collapse due to overload of staff and facilities.
The center’s leadership decided to refuse new cases for at least one day after 21 bodies were delivered over the Friday-Saturday weekend and only three of six doctors were available to perform autopsies. The number of bodies also outstripped the number of refrigerated units available for holding them.
With the number of murders dramatically increasing in the recent year due to an explosion of violence in the Arab community and an uptick in Palestinian terror attacks, the center has been overwhelmed.
“The number of murders alone for the first half of 2023 equals the same as for all of 2022,” Dr. Maya Furman, head of the center’s legal pathology unit, told a Channel 13 reporter.
The center in Jaffa, known colloquially as Abu Kabir, is the only forensic medicine institute in Israel. All cases of death not by natural causes must be investigated there. These include murder, manslaughter, deaths involving sexual assault, and suicides. Abu Kabir must prepare forensic evidence for legal cases, and also provide definitive answers about the cause of death to the families of the deceased.
Abu Kabir told The Times of Israel Monday morning that the center was open. The person answering the phone refused to discuss the reported refusal to accept new corpses the day before and instead referred questions to the Health Ministry.
As of Monday afternoon, the Health Ministry had not responded. However, Army Radio reported that the ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying, “The Health Ministry is aware of the burden and it is being dealt with. It seems that already by tonight more bodies could be accepted if necessary.”
A Channel 13 news report from earlier this month featured doctors at the center saying that they were burned out and undercompensated and therefore seriously considering quitting. At the same time, there are fewer medical residents interested in entering the field to take their place.
“We’re afraid we are not going to be able to cope with [the pressure]. If one more doctor quits, I just don’t know what will happen,” Furman said.
Dr. Avi Zalan, who decided this summer to leave Abu Kabir, said he believed the government has systematically neglected it.
Army Radio reported that two months ago a discussion took place in the Knesset addressing the shortage of doctors at Abu Kabir. Statistics were presented indicating that a country the size of Israel should have between 50 and 100 forensic pathologists, as opposed to the handful it has now.
Channel 13 presented the numbers differently, reporting that European countries have one forensic pathologist for anywhere between 30,000 to 100,000 residents. In Israel, it is one for every 1.5 million.
Abu Kabir also suffers from outdated facilities and insufficient support staff, which currently comprises one photographer, one social worker, and five pathology technicians.
“The institute suits a small European town, and not a country the size of Israel,” said Dr. Chen Kugel, head of the center.
The Times of Israel Community.