Santé Israël – French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system

Santé Israël has finally returned to face-to-face information evenings after a long period of COVID-19 gathering restrictions. Alya de Groupe – an organization that accompanies French citizens in their Aliyah process, coordinates a visit to Israel, and plans lectures for them on various subjects – invited Marie Avigad, director of Santé Israël, to give a lecture on the Israeli health system.

On March 7, 2022, Marie Avigad explained to a group of about 50 people at Qualita offices in Jerusalem, about the health system in Israel. Her workshop focused on common challenges faced by new immigrants, the similarities and differences from the French health system, how to navigate the system and fully access health rights. Marie also referred them to the Santé Israël website, where more information can be found in French.

Raising awareness about health care rights

The participants showed great interest in the lecture, which lasted more than an hour and a half as a result of the numerous questions they had. The questions were mainly about choosing their HMO, supplementary health insurance, nursing insurance, emergency medical centers, and more. They were very pleased to receive critical information and answers, and learn about Santé Israël website along with the fact that Marie is available to assist with any questions that they may have in the future. 

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

We’ve posted here, here and here how Santé Israël has been helping French speakers – in Israel and even abroad – navigate the health care system in Israel.

Current page on coronavirus

Yesterday, on July 26, the Santé Israël web site broke its record – with 580 entrances to the site in one day! This was after posts on Facebook reached 7,500 people, with 600 engagements. This, too, was a record for the Facebook and website pages.

How did the word get out to so many people?

Well, there seem to be a number of factors. Over the previous week, Santé Israël director Marie Avigad shared the post to 50 groups and pages serving the French-speaking community in Israel. She also spoke about the coronavirus landing page at a Qualita Forum meeting. She also discussed it in a WhatsApp group for professionals and invited them to check out the web site. This was also just after many of the guidelines had changed, so there were a great number of people looking for reliable, comprehensive information, which can be found on the dedicated page for the coronavirus.

Keep up the good work Santé Israël!

Here’s the record-breaking post:

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

For many, dealing with the coronavirus included staying at home. For others, it entailed leaving an old home to find a new home in Israel. Santé Israël helped them get set up on the health care front. Moving to a new country is always difficult and learning the health care system is essential. Doing so during a worldwide pandemic, when health care systems are stretched to the max and rules and regulations are constantly changing and different in different locations, is even more critical. Santé Israël was and continues to be there to help.

Helping French-speaking Olim at all times

According to data from the Jewish Agency and immigrant organizations, there has been a significant rise in interest to immigrate to Israel among French Jewry. In order to provide information about life in the country to potential immigrants, the Qualita organization for French-speaking olim has created a website called Préparation à la alyah (preparation for aliyah): https: //www.preparation-alyah.com/

Through the website, applicants can schedule zoom meetings with people around the country, who can answer questions in a range of areas. who are in the country, and who can give answers to their questions in various fields. Santé Israël coordinator Marie Avigad invited to participate in the project to provide health information.

On Tuesday 30.6, she had her first Zoom session. It was with a woman who in the middle of the aliyah process. She’d heard about the website via an ad on Facebook. She had a very interesting aliyah story.

She, her husband and their 8-year-old daughter arrived in Israel on March 3, at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. They thought they’d be in Israel for a short while, and would be able to wait out the crisis in Israel, in a place they felt was ‘theirs,’ near people ‘like them.’  The next day, all flights out of Israel stopped, and they couldn’t go anywhere.

They stayed in Tel Aviv, and as time went on they decided to stay and make aliyah. They’ve almost finished the process. She asked for information about the health system in general and how to obtain health insurance. During the Zoom session she wanted to write down everything Marie said, but she didn’t need to. Using Zoom’s ‘Share screen’ feature, she was able to show her in real time all the information she needed: how to register with the National Insurance Institute, registering with an HMO, how to pay for the HMO, what is covered by the different types of insurance, how to change HMO’s if necessary, well-baby clinics, French-speaking doctors that are listed on the Santé Israël web site, and more. She was very grateful for the help she received.

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

Since the coronavirus crisis hit Israel – and especially the French-speaking community – in February, we’ve been updating you about the important work that Santé Israël has been doing. You can read about it here and here and here.

Marie interview withQualita

Santé Israël’s Marie Avigad continues to help French speakers in Israel get through the virus. In addition to ongoing work online and through the project’s Facebook page, Marie has also been providing important information via the Qualita organization, which seeks to assist French-speaking olim in Israel. She recently gave an interview, in French, obviously, she spoke about Sante Israel in general, and especially during the coronavirus period:

In a separate interview, Qualita Chairman Gérard Benhamou, thanked Sante Israel for its work (at 2.05)

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

We wrote here earlier this month about how Santé Israël is helping to respond to the Coronavirus crisis in Israel.

Photo Credit: Israeli Ministry of Health site

And of course, it continues to do so. Its Facebook page continues to provide updates in French on an almost daily basis. For example, it carries updates from the Ministry of Health as its directives are made more and more stringent.

Or about new updates about products that should – or shouldn’t – be used:

It also publishes information on the ‘side effects’ of shelter in place and lockdown directives, such as notifications of the Legal Aid Department of the Department of Justice:

There is a special page on the Santé Israël web site about the cornavirus and is updated as the Ministry of Health updates its directives.

Sante Israel page on corona information

t is important to point out that the information is from the Ministry of Health and official ‘what to do’ scenarios; it doesn’t carry medical information about the virus. We found that there’s enough of that online.

This has proven to be a particularly important service at this time. While the French-speaking population has been particularly affected by the outbreak, the Ministry of Health has yet to translate all its instructions into French (to its credit, it does translate into Arabic, English, Russian, and Amharic). That is where we – and Sante Israel – is picking up the slack. Kol Hakavod to Santé Israël on the quick and accurate information.

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years. Wishing health and safety to all!

The coronavirus – its spread, possible cases in Israel and what to do if you’ve visited certain countries or been at different sites at certain times – is at the top of Israel’s news headlines these days.

Photo Credit: Israeli Ministry of Health site

Santé Israël has been getting the word out to French speakers around Israel.

It has translated directives from the Israel Ministry of Health, and published updates since its outbreak a few months ago. This post, from January 30, was among the first giving instructions in French:

It is important to note that the information doesn’t include medical / scientific information about the virus itself. We’ve found that there is plenty of information about the virus in French online. The goal of this awareness campaign is to make sure that as much information as possible that is issued by Israeli authorities is also available in French. Here’s one of the earlier announcements:

And one of the later announcements:

And the latest post:

In addition, Santé Israël has added the latest information to its web site.

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years. Wishing health and safety to all!