The pediatric division of the Soroka University Medical Center is responsible for the medical care of almost 350,000 children in the Negev region. It treats more than 35,000 children a year in its Emergency Department. It admits more than 11,000 children a year to the hospital, and nearly 50 percent of those admissions are children under four years of age. There are more than 10,000 visits a year to its 14 outpatient clinics and laboratories; The pediatric division is able to offer the optimum in multidisciplinary care, with 20 pediatric subspecialties and dozens of special services for children and families. Soroka’s young patients are a microcosm of the uniquely diverse Negev population including new immigrants from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union and Argentina, children of veteran Israeli families and an increasing number of Bedouins. The Pediatric division also receives patients from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, and from as far away as Eastern Europe, thus fulfilling its mandate to serve as a “bridge to peace” in the region. Being recognized as an institution of medical and academic excellence, the pediatric division hosts every year more than 100 students, residents and young physicians, devoted to the mission of training physicians to care for patients as a whole, where medical treatment is accompanied by developmental, psychological, social and educational services. The Pediatric Division conducts cooperative training and research programs both locally and internationally, accentuating the wisdom of incorporating high quality research into a tertiary medical facility. International collaborative research and professional connections are high on the list of priorities. A new high-tech pediatric center has an Intensive Care Unit with Isolation Rooms, a Hematology-Oncology ward for young cancer patients, three Pediatric Departments, a Day Hospitalization Unit, Study and Recreation rooms, an Adolescent Treatment Unit and an Imaging Center. The state-of-the-art children hospital will be the best place for evolving a comprehensive policy constituting whole-child-care, where medical excellence and a unique multidisciplinary approach are interwoven with psychological, educational, developmental and social services for the Negev children.
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