2 doctors at Israeli field hospital in Ukraine sent home after being caught drunk

Two Israeli doctors who were part of the Israeli delegation running the humanitarian field hospital in western Ukraine will be sent back to Israel after they got drunk after working hours, the Health Ministry said Sunday.

The doctors, one from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and the other from Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, will be flown back to Israel due to “professional misconduct,” the ministry statement read.

Nachman Ash, director general of the Health Ministry, was notified on Saturday of the decision to send the doctors home by the head of the Israeli delegation to Ukraine, Dr. David Dagan.

The field hospital, which has been dubbed “Kochav Meir” (“Shining Star”), was established on the grounds of an elementary school in Mostyska, outside Lviv. It received its first patient on March 22, about a month after Russian launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Its name is a nod to former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, a Kyiv native.

The mission comprises 100 staff members – 80 of whom are doctors and nurses – who sleep on-site in dorm-like accommodations improvised within the school building.

A Ukrainian flag hangs at a schoolhouse that has been converted into a field hospital, in Mostyska, western Ukraine, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Dagan said after the hospital opened its doors that the Israeli delegation “would do [its] best to be the shining star in the [Ukrainian] refugees’ medical journey.”

According to reports, Dagan found the two doctors drunk after work hours and decided they were not fit to continue working as part of the delegation. The statement did not provide further details about the circumstances leading to Dagan’s decision.

The Health Ministry said that Ash has asked the director-general of the Rambam and Galilee medical centers to pursue an inquiry into the doctors in question upon their return to Israel.

Medical staff, Ukrainian and Israeli government representatives, and patients on-site at Israel’s field hospital in Mostyska, Ukraine, March 22, 2022. (Carrie Keller-Lynn/The Times of Israel)

In a statement issued by Rambam Medical Center, the hospital said it will not draw any conclusions until it receives more information about the incident.

“We would like to remind the public that this was a local decision by the head of the delegation and the full picture is not yet clear. We are taking the incident seriously, but will not publish further details and won’t address the incident at this point, before an inquiry can be held,” a statement issued by the hospital read.

Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.