Gov't delays bone marrow bank funds
Millions allocated to life-saving project stuck in red-tape labyrinthine. Cancer patients left in life threatening state since possible donors cannot be sampled. MK Bielski: 'People dying due to bureaucracy'
Despite the Knesset approving bill over four months ago obligating the government to allocate funds to establish a bone marrow bank in Israel, the actual budget transfer has been delayed.
This absurd situation has left many patients in a life threatening state since there is not enough money to test the blood of those volunteers who wish to join the bank.
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Knesset Member Zeev Bielski (Kadima) and MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi), together with former Defense Minister Amir Peretz (Labor), formed the bill.
The State was supposed to allocate NIS 5 million (approx. $1.45 million) to the bone marrow bank budget at first, which would have assisted in adding nearly 20,000 donors to the bank in 2011.
However the Health Ministry has refused to transfer the funds.
"People are dying because of this bureaucracy. What about the responsibility of the State?" asked Bielski.
There are two bone marrow donor registries in Israel: Ezer Mizion with about 550,000 blood samples, and Hadassah Medical Center with some 70,000 samples.
Dr. Bracha Zisser, Director of Ezer Mizion's Bone Marrow Donor Registry, is working to promote this important issue. "Many people wish to join the bank and save lives, but we don't have the money to help them join," she explained.
According to Zisser, every blood test to check whether someone is a match to a cancer patient costs NIS 250 (approx. $72).
'Delayed for no reason'
One such person awaiting a bone marrow transplant is Or Yosefov, a 13-year-old cancer patient. He was able to take a short leave from the hospital on Tuesday to participate in his school's annual end of the year celebrations.
"There is much sampling to be done. One of them may help safe a life, but there is not way to check it because the funding has been delayed for no reason," said Yosefov's mother, Sigalit.
The Health Ministry responded by saying: "The budget has to be approved by the Justice Ministry pending review. The Ministry has approved a review process for 2011, which will determine budgetary allocation."
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