Prof Kumar visited Israel in June 2017.
This visit was arranged together with the British Friends of the Hebrew University.
On her arrival Prof Kumar attended the Hebrew University Board of Governors reception on Mount Scopus where she met with the outgoing Dean of the Medical School, Prof David Lichtstein. Her first formal visit was to Prof Jonathan Halevy at Shaarei Zedek Hospital where she heard about Israeli medical services and the “basket of services”, and about health care delivery in Jerusalem. On the Ein Kerem Hebrew University – Hadassah campus, she met first with Profs Orly Manor, Yehuda Neumark and Ora Paltiel from the Braun School of Public Health, who introduced her to some of the international students. She then met with the vice-Dean, Prof Joel Israeli, together with Prof Arie Ben Yehuda and Prof Shlomo Sasson.
The UK Ambassador’s Residence was the venue for a remarkable lunch attended by the leading women in Israeli medicine, including the President of Ben Gurion University (Prof Rivka Carmi), the newly elected Dean of the Hebrew University Medical Faculty (Prof Dina Ben Yehuda), and the Israeli Medical Association Chief Legal Officer (Adv Malke Borow). Further details about this event can be accessed here.
Later she met with Dr Tzaki Ziv-Nir (Sheba Medical Centre) who is about to head the National Rehabilitation Services at the Ministry of Health, and with Prof Shmuel Reis (Hebrew University), who heads the Israeli Medical Education Society, and leads on education about the impact of the Holocaust on medicine.
At the Technion – Rapaport School she met with the new Dean (Prof Shimon Marom) and was taken to visit the Rambam Gastroenterology Department by Dr Matti Waterman. After visiting Western Galilee Hospital (part of the Bar Ilan University Medical School in the Galilee), where she was welcomed by the Director, Dr Massad Barhoum, she met with Dr Mary Rudolf (from Paediatrics at that Medical School) together with Dr Lilech Maletskey, and then had dinner with UK medical graduates working in Israel.
On her final day she visited Ben Gurion University, meeting with Prof Alan Jotkowitz, Dr Anat Rosenthal, Prof Eli Lewis, Dr Nihaya Dauod and Prof Alex Fisch. She heard about the International School, Ben Gurion work in Africa, initiatives looking at the status of women in Israel, and new developments in Immunology and Gastroenterology.
Prof Kumar was also able to tour Jerusalem, visit Bethlehem and see the exhibitions at Lochamei Hagetaot on Medicine in the Holocaust and on Jews of Holland.