Dr Spitzer honoured by London Local Medical Committees
Dr Joseph (Yossi) Spitzer was honoured by the Londonwide Local Medical Committees – the professional voice of London general practice – at a recent ceremony held in Parliament.
The award recognises Yossi’s long-standing services to General Practice and acknowledges that, in the midst of today’s challenging health and social care environment, he sets an example, tackling his role with passion, pride and professionalism.
Yossi’s base is at the Cranwich Road Surgery in Hackney where a substantial proportion of his patients are strictly orthodox. He provides culturally sensitive care for them – and also for patients from other groups who require such sensitivity. The practice helps educate medical students from Barts and the London, and Yossi inculcates in these students that it requires time and effort to understand personal and cultural issues in order to provide the highest quality care.
Yossi is widely known for his books “Caring for Jewish Patients” and “A Guide to the Orthodox Jewish Way of Life for Healthcare Professionals” which aim to ensure that Jewish patients and their families encounter a user-friendly environment when they come into contact with healthcare. Conversely, he tries hard to educate the Jewish community about medical issues, in particular preventive medicine, tailoring his messages to make sure that they are accessible to all.
It is in this preventive medicine guise that Yossi has been a very prominent leader in promoting immunisation programmes. Information about these programmes often does not reach the strictly orthodox; and, even when it does, delivery of services may not be appropriate. It is a tribute to him that the recent Race and Health Observatory Report used his area in Hackney as their model for how best to communicate with the Jewish community. They noted that he has engaged with Jewish voluntary services and Jewish media publications to provide support for his endeavours; and he has encouraged trusted community members and organisations to prepare suitable communication materials which foster vaccine advocacy and outreach. This leads to co-delivery of immunisation with joint medical and community input. The vaccination centres where this programme is implemented are based in Jewish community hubs (e.g. synagogues) and are open at times that accommodate religious needs. The approach that he has promoted provides a template not only on what can be done in the Jewish community, but also on what other faith and ethnic communities could develop for themselves.
Commenting on this award, members of both the local community where he works and the wider Jewish community, said “Yossi’s patience, dedication, conscientious approach, and seemingly limitless time availability are quite remarkable”.
Forensic Medicine in Israel in the Aftermath of October 7th 2023
The Israeli National Institute for Forensic Medicine was established in 1954 and since 2012 has been administered by the Ministry of Health. Known colloquially as “Abu Kabir”, after where it is located, it is the only facility in Israel authorized to conduct autopsies in cases of unnatural death, including victims of terror attacks. Forensic examination is done on all homicides, suicides and suspicious deaths, and it is also where rape cases are investigated. It is the only facility in Israel for training in forensic science and medicine.
For many years Abu Kabir was the only such facility in the region; there is now a Jordanian Forensic Medicine within the University of Jordan Pathology Department and in 2024 the International Committee of the Red Cross took an active role in promoting the development of forensic services in Syria.
There have been occasional controversies about Abu Kabir over the past 70 years. Organ retention – resembling the Bristol and Alder Hey episodes in the UK – occurred at one point. The most serious – and appalling – allegation was about killing people in order to harvest organs (resembling what has actually happened to Ugyhur Muslims in China). This allegation was demonstrated to be completely untrue. As in many other countries, the State Prosecutor’s Office has attempted to interfere with Abu Kabir findings, and these attempts have been resisted by successive directors.
October 7th 2023 imposed unbelievable pressure on Abu Kabir. It is difficult to conceive the sheer volume of work, the awful and distressing nature of this work and the emotional toll on those involved. Under the leadership of the current Director, Dr Chen Kugel, the horrific facts were documented in as much detail as possible. An added burden more recently is that they have been involved in identifying and recording the facts about the bodies of dead hostages. The technologies have evolved since 1954 , and Dr Kugel and his colleagues published a summary of what they have been doing in Forensic Science International which can be accessed here.
To bring this work to the attention of a wider audience Dr Joel Zivot published an impressive article in The Jurist which can be accessed here. Joel places these issues in a wider context, reflecting on media reports about the death of a well-known actor, Gene Hackman, and noting how Abu Kabir’s work fits into Jewish concepts about respect for the dead.