Years of disaster drills kept Israeli hospitals running – until Oct. 7 exposed the gaps

A new study published in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, based on interviews with staff from Samson Assuta Ashdod University Medical Center, details the hospital's response to the October 7, 2023, attacks. Years of disaster drills and a missile-protected emergency department enabled the hospital to treat numerous casualties under rocket fire. However, the real wartime conditions exposed significant gaps in communication, logistics, staffing, and casualty distribution. Key issues included staff facing choices between military and hospital duty, administrative personnel unable to report, and a lack of reliable information, forcing reliance on fragmented updates from various sources and social media. The study suggests improvements such as a centralized body for patient allocation, ensuring all critical areas are missile-proof, and establishing a dedicated mechanism for information sharing among all emergency services. As Prof. Adam Rose stated, "Israeli planners hadn't ever considered the possibility that our country would not control part of its own territory for a period of time."