The Shadow Health Secretary visited Israel with Labour Friends of Israel, which coincided with the BioMed Israel 2022 conference that took place in Tel Aviv.
To enable Wes to learn more about Israel’s healthcare system, his itinerary included visits to hospitals and meetings with key figures including Israel’s Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz. Wes went on to tour MDA’s National Dispatch Centre and our newly opened Marcus National Blood Services Centre in Ramle.
Our Director of Blood Services, Professor Eilat Shinar, guided him around the £90 million Centre – which was funded by a three-way partnership between Magen David Adom UK, American Friends of MDA and the Government of Israel. Brian Kalms, Vice Chair, and Reverend Mark Madeley, President, Christian Friends of Magen David Adom, were also there as proud representatives of MDA UK.
It was a true honour to host Streeting and give him the opportunity to see the sophisticated and ever-evolving software that MDA UK is helping MDA in Israel to showcase and sell around the world – particularly as he is the first Labour MP to do so.
Wes was “hugely impressed” by Israel’s state-of-the-art healthcare system and praised the country’s “remarkable advances in medical technology” thanks to organisations like Magen David Adom. He added, “Israel is well over a decade ahead of the NHS in terms of using everyday technology to save lives. This includes using apps to feed real-time information into ambulance services, ultimately improving response times and making sure medics have the right support to ensure patients are treated in the most effective and efficient ways possible.
We will definitely be trying to emulate this back at home to think about how we can improve patient experience and clear the enormous Covid backlog.”
You can watch a video of Wes reflecting on his visit here.
The recent spate of terror attacks – including the attack in Jerusalem on Sunday – are a stark reminder of the Centre’s reason for being and its potential to save thousands of lives.