LTC facilities in Israel are supervised by the Ministry of Health and/or the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. At the same time, the National Insurance carries responsibility for LTC services in the community.

Early in the pandemic the vulnerability of people with LTC needs was recognized which led to the establishment of the ‘Fathers and Mothers Shield task force’. This taskforce was made up of representatives of all relevant government ministries, the Israeli army, Israeli intelligence organizations, and public sector organizations. Measures implemented by the task force include an increase in testing among residents and staff in residential LTC settings, setting up Corona Wards in geriatric hospitals and LTC facilities, and regulation around visiting. The authors of a paper assessing the management of COVID-19 in the long-term care sector concluded that the centralized management implemented in response to the pandemic ‘had led to a welcome change in LTC policy in Israel’.  At the decline of the 4^th wave of the pandemic in Israel, it is hard to say that the centralized management of the pandemic in LTCFs will impact broader and long-term changes regarding the organization of the LTC system in Israel (Tsadok-Rosenbluth, 2021).

Sources:

Tsadok-Rosenbluth, S., Hovav, B., Horowitz, G. and Brammli-Greenberg, S., 2021. Centralized Management of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Long-Term Care Facilities in Israel. Journal of Long-Term Care, (2021), pp.92–99. DOI: http://doi.org/10.31389/jltc.75