International CAM: integrating CAM in Israel

Israel consists of a large number of immigrants from multiple countries and cultures around the world, and some relate this multi-ethnicity as one of the reasons why CAM is so popular in this country. It is one of the few countries that has a large system of CAM provision within the conventional system and supported by both the public and private sectors. The extent of CAM services provided to the general public is quite extensive. More than 20 forms of CAM are used widely in Israel. Due to public demand and as part of the competition to attract patients, all the health maintenance organisations (HMOs) in Israel made a strategic decision to sponsor CAM outpatient clinics to some extent. Between 42 and 60% of biomedical GPs have reported referring patients to non-conventional practitioners. It was estimated in 1998 that there were about 100 000 non-conventional practitioners (one person in every 60 had some training in CAM). All the HMOs as well as some of the public hospitals expanded their services and number of clinics. In the past few years it has been estimated that there are close to 100 regional CAM outpatient clinics covering the whole state of Israel, with an average of about one CAM clinic to every 60 000 people. This presentation covers the unique CAM provision in this country, an interesting and thought-provoking aspect of health care that is not well known.