Following concerns stemming from the growing wave of COVID cases, and a rise in hospitalization of children around the world, new guide lines were under consideration by health officials.
Ynet has learned of a meeting on Wednesday, held with pediatric hospital chiefs and emergency medicine experts, to decide on steps that must be taken in preparation for increased child morbidity, with the aim of reducing unnecessary admittance of children and in order to free beds for those most in need.
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Pediatric emergency room teams with PPE at the Shamir Medical Center outside Tel Aviv
(Photo: Head nurse Yifat Hadad )
Among steps being discussed were an early release from care, of children who suffered from high fever, after they were admitted for observation.
The Health Ministry asked hospitals to prepare for a rush of sick children, though the Omicron variant was not expected to cause serious illness in most cases.
Thus far, no surge in child hospitalization has been observed.
"We discussed the option of releasing from hospital children and babies who we would have normally admitted," Professor David Greenberg, chief of pediatrics at the Soroka Medical Center and a member of the panel advising the government on the pandemic and vaccines, said.
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Medical teams at the pediatric coronavirus ward at the Shamir Medical Center outside Tel Aviv
(Photo: Head nurse Yifat Hadad )
"The protocol in Israel is that a baby who is less than one month old, remains hospitalized for observation but we are leaning towards adopting the American standard to lower that age to 21 days, if the child appears in good condition," he said. "This should free up beds for the pediatric coronavirus wards, in the event that we see a wave of hospitalization with the virus. In the U.S. and Britain, such a surge has already begun," Professor Greenberg said.
Professor Itai Shavit, head of pediatric emergency medicine at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, says that in the zoom meeting on Wednesday, participants agreed that there will be a considerable rise in illness in children that will require hospital care, within two weeks. "We don't expect the children to suffer more serious symptoms, but we expect to see more of them in need of hospitalization," he said.
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Mother with her new baby born during the coronavirus pandemic
(Photo: Rambam hospital PR)
"Normally, fever in very small babies is a concern that must be investigated in full, usually done in the emergency room," he said. We will have to be very careful and selective in our decisions going forward."
"We will not have the privilege of admitting children for investigations and observation if we have a shortage of beds and will have to find ways including remote medicine, to provide the necessary care," he said.
First published: 21:18, 12.30.21