The disabled are paying the price: Hundreds of wheelchairs from the Yad Sara Association, intended for patients seeking to be released for Passover, are being held up at the Ashdod port due to a strike by port workers.
The container, loaded with chairs, was scheduled to arrive during the day at the organization's main warehouse, and from there to Yad Sara branches across the country. Yad Sara management has contacted the workers' committee, but has not yet received a response. "We hope that the workers' committee will allow the wheelchairs to be released today, so that no one is sick and cannot be released home," the organization says.
The days before Passover are considered a peak period for the loan of medical equipment. The amount of medical equipment leaving the central warehouse of Yad Sara to branches across the country is three times greater than usual. The most requested item is wheelchairs. 4,000 wheelchairs and walkers will be delivered to the 104 branches by the eve of the holiday. Hundreds of oxygen cylinders and hundreds of other devices will also be sent. The value of the devices loaned: hundreds of thousands of shekels received from donations.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
Rabbi Moshe Cohen, director of services and branches, says that "during Passover, especially, family members try to be together at home. People bring relatives from nursing homes, and patients and mothers who can leave the hospital are helped by the medical equipment." The goal of Yad Sarah, during Passover and all year round, notes Rabbi Cohen, is to enable people with functional difficulties to stay at home.
In preparation for Passover, Yad Sara will also operate a "Home Hospitalization" department on holiday alert. The department has purchased a large quantity of hospital beds and lifts, in order to enable the release of patients in need to continue the recovery process at home. Yad Sara estimates that by the holiday, volunteers will have loaned approximately 20,000 items of medical equipment to all branches across the country.
