Prof. Hana Leiba has been appointed Dean of the brand new Eilat medical college, which is because of open this yr. She spoke to “Globes” a number of days after returning to Israel on a ‘rescue’ flight from Laos, the place she was main a delegation of ophthalmological surgeons in a area doesn’t have a single knowledgeable in pediatric eye surgical procedure. Again in Israel she is now in a position to focus her full consideration on organising the brand new medical college.
Leiba will lead the medical college alongside her different roles on the Clalit Well being Fund. She serves, amongst different issues, as head of ARIK, the educational analysis and innovation middle at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot, which is affiliated with the Hebrew College, and as head of analysis at Clalit’s hospital division.
How is it attainable to satisfy all these roles? “I really like doing issues,” she says. “As a mom of three daughters and grandmother of 5 granddaughters, at first I stated – what do I’ve to do to get to Eilat? However my Zionist spark as a daughter of Holocaust survivors lit up. Coming to Eilat and coming to the State of Israel to develop this metropolis.”
“Consider we will develop Yoseftal Hospital”
The non-public medical college in Eilat is an formidable initiative by Dr. Moshe Cohen, which many have criticized or just didn’t consider would turn into actuality. In his imaginative and prescient, the varsity will prepare international and Israeli college students who would in any other case go overseas to review, so it’s a “win-win” state of affairs. On the one hand, protecting extra medical doctors within the nation and however, selling Eilat and Yoseftal Hospital.
Lately, after years of stagnation, a sequence of medical colleges have been established in Israel. As a consequence of this, critics have questioned what the necessity is for a personal worldwide establishment in Eilat and whether or not it’s able to bringing in high-level lecturers and elevating cash to construct the mandatory infrastructure.
One other declare, on which there’s broad settlement, is that Eilat’s Yoseftal Hospital just isn’t presently prepared for the educational coaching of scholars.
“I can say clearly that Clalit is mobilized for this transfer and for the promotion of Yoseftal in order that it’s worthy of the mission. We will say that at the moment Yoseftal is an emergency hospital however not a tutorial hospital. I consider that we will develop it and in addition consider in my potential to obtain coaching providers for our college students from different hospitals.”
The initiator Dr. Moshe Cohen: “The beginning of a change wanted for years
Dr. Moshe Cohen, who based an organization to arrange Israeli college students for exams and medical research overseas, conceived the challenge in several occasions. Earlier than the struggle, the concept that college students from all Abraham Accords nations would come to review in Israel appeared very cheap.
As a part of her function at Clalit, Leiba is already chargeable for the scientific coaching of medical college students who return from research overseas.
“A lot of them come to Clalit. We all know the challenges and their benefits. Generally these are college students who weren’t accepted to review in Israel by some extent. The extra private connection they must the nation, the extra inclined they are going to be to remain right here.
“The struggle solely emphasizes Eilat’s want for a medical response. In my imaginative and prescient, creating the college in Eilat can even enhance medication within the metropolis, which is the gateway to the world to the south.”
100 candidates for 45 locations
The medical college will open within the upcoming educational yr. As of at the moment, the varsity says, 15 college students have registered, out of 60, and there are about 100 candidates for the 45 remaining locations. The research themselves will happen within the educational constructing within the metropolis itself, and on the identical time the planning and development processes of the brand new campus will start. Along with the lecturers who will come from Hungary, greater than 70 Israeli lecturers have already been employed to show pre-clinical and scientific research. “It is a 3-4 hour drive,” says Leiba, “you’ll be able to keep in a single day, and there are additionally plans the place every lecturer will come for per week or a number of concentrated weeks, and the remainder of the time the scholars might be given duties that they may supervise remotely, with a extra impartial and research-based method. There can even be lecturers who will train on-line, and lecturers who will come from the College of Debrecen in Hungary, with whom we now have a signed cooperation settlement.”
Some claimed that Debrecen can not present the suitable degree of educating.
Leiba laughs. “This is likely one of the finest universities in Europe for learning medication. It isn’t nice how they had been obtained in Israel. True, it might have been higher if one of many universities in Israel had taken on the duty. I do not know why every college hates the opposite.”
“To Soar in above the waist just isn’t so wholesome”
With the intention to carry Yoseftal to the required degree, Clalit should present extra funds. Is it dedicated to this?
“Sure, Clalit should present funds and launch medical doctors for coaching, and in addition for the event of the hospital. The state can even have to assist. Eilat Mayor Eli Lankari and Training Minister Yoav Kish supported the challenge, and I hope they really feel that it obliges them.
“I do know we’re beginning in October. Even an important journey begins with one step, and leaping in above the waist just isn’t so wholesome. I consider in processes.”
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on March 25, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
