Soroka expressed his willingness in principle for the Histadrut Health Fund to establish a hospital, but Minister of Health Yosef Serlin, who aspired to reduce the activity of the fund and transfer it to the state, objected to this idea. In August 1955, Dov Begun, representative of the Histadrut in the United States, convinced the president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, David Dubinsky (1892–1982) to donate US$1 million (a quarter million every year for four years) toward establishing a hospital in the Negev that would commemorate the organization's name. According to press reports at the time, Dubinsky had indicated that the ILGWU might make a further $500,000 available to the hospital after the $1,000,000 contribution was completed, as the estimated construction cost was $1,500,000. At the end of that year, a new government was formed and Yisrael Barzilai was appointed minister of health. He supported the establishment of the hospital and convinced Ben-Gurion to allow Clalit to set up a new hospital in Beersheva, while the Ministry of Health would establish one in Ashkelon (now Barzilai Medical Center). One of the things that convinced Ben-Gurion was his fear that the planned Sinai War would result in a shortage of hospital beds for wounded soldiers. On July 23, 1956, ground was broken on the new hospital. The hospital building was designed by architects Arieh Sharon and Benjamin Idelson. In October 1959, the opening ceremony of the Central Hospital of the Negev was held. At first, the hospital contained several vital departments: the General Surgery Department (in the framework of which were the Otolaryngology Department, the Ophthalmology Department, and the Urology Department), two internal medicine departments, the Orthopedic Department, the Cardiology Institute, and the Radiology Institute. Later, additional departments were opened. After the death of Moshe Soroka, the director of Clalit Health Organization in the 1950s, who played a significant role in establishing the hospital, it was decided to name the hospital in his memory. In 2018, Shlomi Codish was named director-general of the hospital replacing Ehud Davidson, who held the post for five years. The сampus The hospital covers an area of 286 dunams, with a constructed area of more than 200,000 square meters, and includes 30 buildings. Among the buildings on campus are the following: The Internal Medicine Building, located at the center of the campus, houses most of the departments from the field of internal medicine: the