wfn.org | A brighter future for Jerusalem's Augusta Victoria Hospital

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

LWF says new management strategy has reversed poor financial trend

JERUSALEM, Israel/GENEVA, 21 December 1998 (lwi) - After going through
financial difficulties during the past few years, the Augusta Victoria
Hospital in East Jerusalem is getting back on track, thanks to the
application of a new management strategy.

According to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World
Service Program in Jerusalem, in the last one-and-a-half years, a major
effort has been made to reverse the poor financial trend in order to
ensure that the Augusta Victoria once again becomes the well-functioning
hospital it has been since 1948, serving the medical and social needs of
the population in West Bank and East Jerusalem in general, as well as the
great number of Palestinian refugees.

On the overall, Augusta Victoria Hospital provides Charity Care of
approximately US $2 million per year. This is primarily paid for in three
ways.The first category is the "poor fund", which pays directly for the
charity care. Donors to this fund help to provide services for refugees
and patients with no medical insurance, too poor to pay for themselves. At
the moment, DanChurchAid is the largest donor to the poor fund. The second
source  is the LWF itself, which provides a subsidy contributed through
its donor partners. The third financial source is the Net Revenue
generated from the care of paying patients such as the Israeli insured
patients and private patients.

LWF- Jerusalem says part of the new hospital management strategy has been
to develop services that are not available elsewhere on the West Bank or
in East Jerusalem. About 80 percent of the patients seeking such
specialized care come from the West Bank and many travel very far to get
these new services.

Cancer is another significant problem in the West Bank. In response to the
disease, the Augusta Victoria Hospital is in the process of developing a
proposal for better possibilities for the treatment and monitoring of the
patients. Presently, most cancer cases are diagnosed at a very late stage,
leaving little hope for healing.

Sometimes, when the Israeli government enforces closure between the West
Bank and Jerusalem, the patients trying to reach the Augusta Hospital are
stopped at check-points and turned back to their homes, practically being
denied access to treatment, LWF- Jerusalem notes, and at the same time
emphasizes that part of the political importance of the hospital is to be
a witness to the needs and rights of the patients in such a situation.

LWF- Jerusalem also points to the fact that it was possible to appoint
high quality senior Palestinian staff and comments: "Most qualified
Palestinian doctors go to the United States, Europe and elsewhere to seek
better job opportunities and the enhancement of their careers. As long as
the advanced, technologically demanding and challenging treatment
procedures are only carried out in the Israeli based hospitals, the
skilled medical personnel will be leaving the West Bank." Currently, the
hospital's staff includes 25 doctors, all of them Palestinians. Out of the
total number of employees, 75 percent are from the West Bank, where
unemployment rates are often 30-40 percent, the LWF-office explains.

"The tower of  the hospital can be seen from virtually all parts of the
old city, making Augusta Victoria a symbol of the Christian presence, of
reconciliation and of care being provided in the midst of a political
situation that carries great tension." The hospital was built first as a
hospice between 1907-10 by the German Emperor Wilhelm II and his wife
Auguste-Victoria. In 1939, the British used the building as a military
hospital and in 1948, the responsibility for the foundation complex was
transferred to the LWF. After the Jewish-Arab war in 1948/49, the
International Red Cross opened a hospital for Palestinian refugees. Since
1950, this has been operated by the LWF in cooperation with the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA).

The hospital currently treats about 18,000 patients every year.
Approximately 14,000 of them are refugees and are referred by UNRWA which
pays US $90 per day per patient. However, the cost for treating each
patient is about US $250 per day, therefore creating the need to provide
funding from other sources as well.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/