Dentist gets license suspended after Health Ministry finds clinic was filthy, lacked equipment

Bnai Brak man ignored ministry and didn’t turn up at own hearing.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Dental equipment provided by Remote Area Medical and used by volunteers (photo credit: REUTERS)
Dental equipment provided by Remote Area Medical and used by volunteers
(photo credit: REUTERS)
In an unusual case, a Bnei Brak dentist has lost his license to practice for 10 years – starting October 20 – after the Health Ministry found his clinic was filthy, had inadequate equipment, and he ignored the authorities completely during and after their investigation.
Dr. Marian Ya’acobi was informed by the ministry’s legal adviser of the long suspension following a decision by retired judge Amnon Strashnov, the ombudsman regarding complaints against medical professionals.
The ministry said that it had received a complaint against Ya’acobi in June 2010. Inspectors went to his clinic, located in his home in Rehov Harav Matzliah, and found it to be in terrible physical condition, with old and rusty equipment, lacking the required equipment for sterilizing dental implements, and with garbage strewn around. In addition, there were no records, including patients’ X-rays.
The clinic was an “immediate danger to public health,” the ministry said on Monday.
When a hearing was held, the dentist did not bother to attend, the ministry said, and Ya’acobi’s lawyer attended only one of the sessions. In October 2013, a three-member committee headed by ministry dental health chief Dr. Shlomo Zusman recommended that his dental license be suspended for a full decade. Strashnov, who accepted the recommendation, asked that all the details about the case be publicized so that potential patients not be endangered.
A few years ago, the ministry suspended for several years the license of a Jerusalem dentist who out of negligence caused the death of a toddler after putting him under him general anesthesia to work on his highly damaged teeth.
Asked why Ya’acobi lost his license for a decade for his violations, Zusman said that “in recent years, we have been tougher with dentists who completely ignore the ministry and refuse to cooperate” in investigations.