The Israeli government on Sunday approved the establishment of a second hospital in the Negev city of Beersheva, slated to open in 2028 with 600 beds.
“This is major news for the health of the citizens of Israel, especially in the south,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, adding that the medical facility “will combine the whole range of inpatient services and community care in the south of the country.
“I commend the Health Minister [Uriel Buso], the Finance Minister [Bezalel Smotrich], their directors general and all of the partners in this historic move,” Netanyahu said.
Peres Medical Center will be jointly owned by the Meuhedet and Leumit health funds, and be operated by the Sheba Medical Center.
Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center is currently the only large hospital in the south of the country and the new facility is expected to reduce the burden on Soroka.
“The hospital will bring a new era of high-quality public medicine to the Negev and to the citizens of the entire country,” said Professor Yitshak Kreiss, the director of Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer in Ramat Gan.
“It will be a hospital of the future, innovative and groundbreaking, that will place the patient at the center and will also offer residents of the south medicine at an international standard. This is a Zionist mission,” Kreiss said.
