Operation Swords of Iron
Israel is at war and Rambam Health Care Campus is the designated care provider for all soldiers and civilians injured in wartime in the Northern region. We stand ready to support our security forces and treat patients whenever needed. The (-) 3 floor of the hospital’s underground parking lot – the Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital – is being readied for use. We are currently transferring vital surgical equipment to the hospitals in the south, and are ready to offer them support including the transfer of injured patients to Rambam. Patients were airlifted from hospitals in Southern Israel to Rambam yesterday and are receiving treatment in the hospital.
The Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital
Designed based on lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War when 60 rockets fell within a half mile radius of Rambam, this three level 1,500-vehicle underground parking lot converts to a 2,000-bed hospital within 72 hours. The facility is not just serving Northern Israel in times of extreme emergency, such as war, or natural disasters, it also solves medical crises when mass isolation is called for. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it became the largest COVID-19 treatment facility in Israel, with the capacity of treating hundreds of patient simultaneously.
Injured IDF soldiers brought to Rambam on October 9
When our medical center is under threat, patients in the above-ground hospital will be brought to the Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital through an underground tunnel system. The entire facility will be equipped with emergency care medical equipment to treat acute and trauma-related injuries. Patients who require urgent and life-saving surgery will be operated on in the four fully-equipped fortified surgical suites within the protected underground hospital, as well in the above ground 14 fortified operating rooms.
The secure ICU in the Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital will include ICU beds for critically ill or injured patients who are too unstable to be transferred to other departments.
Israel’s history has seen war returning to this region time and time again. Rambam stands ready and seeks financial support to provide the necessary medical equipment for the Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital – ventilators, anesthesia machines, monitors, infusion pumps and more. In addition, all Underground Hospital systems must be checked and be ready for use ASAP. We cannot do it without your help. We must be prepared immediately.
Rambam is a 1,100 bed hospital, the major tertiary (referral) medical center for all of Northern Israel, serving more than 2.5 million residents and others referred from all over Israel. Our strategic location near Israel’s volatile northern borders has made Rambam a vital national security resource. We are home to the only Level 1 trauma center in the North, and we treat more trauma patients than any other hospital in the country, with outstanding results.
