Government signs permits for new Beersheba hospital after 10-year delay
Medical center slated to open in 2028; Health Minister Buso says it will ‘reduce the gap in medical treatment between the center and the periphery’
Reporter at The Times of Israel
Health Minister Uriel Buso and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed permits on Sunday for a new hospital in Beersheba after a 10-year delay, which officials say will significantly improve the quality of healthcare services for the residents of the south, where there are few existing medical centers.
The hospital, which will be the city’s second, is slated to open by 2028, and will include approximately 600 beds, as well as psychiatric hospitalization facilities and surgical rooms.
The new hospital is a joint project of the Meuhedet and Leumit health maintenance organizations, along with Sheba Medical Center. The HMOs will own the hospital, while Sheba will run it.
The ministers also signed permits for the HMOs to form a joint company to begin the planning and construction of the hospital.
Buso said the new hospital will lessen the gap between the periphery and the center of the country, granting “equal rights to advanced and professional healthcare services to every citizen in Israel, regardless of place of residence, community affiliation, or economic status.”
Healthcare services in southern Israel have struggled to keep pace with the region’s growing population, with over 1 million residents. The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, which opened in 1959, is the main medical hub. The smaller Yoseftal hospital also serves Eilat, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) away.
“Residents of the periphery deserve high-level healthcare services,” said Smotrich. “This step will reduce health disparities,” he said, adding that Negev residents will “receive fast and high-quality healthcare services.”
The plan to strengthen the public healthcare system and expand the public hospitalization network in southern Israel was first approved in 2014.
The government had approved plans for a new hospital in Beersheba in 2022 under then-prime minister Naftali Bennett. The health minister at the time, Nitzan Horowitz, called the move “a health revolution in the periphery,” following “years of paralysis and procrastination.”
Then the government collapsed and the hospital’s plans were shelved.
In May 2024, following an agreement between the Finance Ministry and Health Ministry for the hospital, the government announced it authorized the plan.
According to a 2019 Taub Center, those living in Israel’s geographic periphery suffer from the greatest shortage of beds. In the north and south of the country, the number of beds per 1,000 people is the lowest — 1.32 and 1.55, respectively — while Jerusalem hospitals have the most, 2.36.
“The establishment of the hospital is a necessary step to ensure equality in realizing the right to quality healthcare for the residents of the periphery,” said Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov. He said the new hospital will complement “the outstanding Soroka Hospital,” and provide residents with a choice of several hospitals.
Buso called the announcement “historic,” saying that it will “change the face of our healthcare system for generations to come.”
