HEALTH – Israeli-made medications discarded, AME addresses Health Minister

A video of a doctor and a nurse in Pratovecchio Stia, Arezzo, Tuscany, filming themselves smugly trashing medications by the Israeli pharmaceutical Teva has also reached Israel. The video was filmed at the Casa della Salute (Health House), which is part of the Italian National Health Service. “This is a serious matter. These medications are assets meant to protect patients’ health,” explained Daniele Radzik, a Venetian physician and councilor of the Italian Jewish Medical Association (AME), in an interview with Ynet. He added that when such situations occur, it is important “not to stay silent and to pressure the institutions.”
AME addressed the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, as well as the structure’s top management. “The gesture was not random. It was meant to call for a boycott of medications produced in Israel,” read the AME message, signed by association president Rosanna Supino. According to AME, this is “a particularly severe situation” because medications “should not be a means of political and ideological polemics. They are essential goods for patient care.” AME asked the institutions to consider the episode with “the necessary attention” and reaffirm the National Health System’s principles of “responsibility, neutrality, and centrality of care.” The Tuscany Local Health Authority, to which Casa della Salute belongs, explained that it had already begun to investigate the incident and that it is prepared to take action to protect its image and that of the staff who operate with commitment, dedication, and integrity every day. After the case was publicized in the media, the doctor and the nurse involved apologized in another video. They said their gesture was meant as “a symbolic gesture for peace.”