News Features - Palestine Report
Gaza’s medical sector
feeling impact of Israeli sanctions, restrictions
Health officials in the Gaza
Strip say they are concerned
about hundreds of patients
unable to travel to Israel or
other countries for vital
treatment, and that local
hospitals lack essential
medical equipment, drugs
and fuel, according to a 5
December 2007 IRIN report.
Only about one in seven
patients who used to travel
through the Rafah terminal
to Egypt for treatment are
now able to access medical
care in Israel, according to
World Health Organisation
(WHO) statistics.
Since June, when Hamas
took over in Gaza, 17% of
all patients who applied for
permits to enter Israel were
denied entry, mostly on
“security grounds”.
In October
the figure rose to 23%.
“There is a trend that it is
getting tougher to get out of
Gaza for treatment,” said
Mahmoud Daher of the
WHO in Gaza.
Following the Hamas
takeover, tight Israeli sanctions
were placed on all
travel to and from the Strip,
in addition to restrictions
on imports and a near total
ban on exports.
“The cases of patients
waiting for treatment will
just get more difficult,” Bassam al-Badri of the
referral department at the
ministry of health in Gaza,
told IRIN. “Some of them
will have to have unnecessary
amputations.
Already
some people are in the
intensive care unit because
they didn't get treated.”
At least 13 people who
completed the permit application
process died in the
past two months waiting for
treatment, according to
health organisations.
Another
15 or so died while still
applying, according to the
Gaza ministry of health.
One was Na'el al Kurdi, a
cancer patient who died in
Gaza in November at the
age of 21. Before June he
was treated in Egypt, but
after that he was unable to
access care in Israel, due to
“security reasons”.
“I was very sad and
worried when he was dying
here in our home in front of
my eyes, while we could not
do anything,” Umm Rami,
his mother, told IRIN. “In
the last two weeks, he barely
drank water.”
According to Physicians
for Human Rights-Israel
(PHR-I), the closure of Rafah
means that many people
suspected of being a security
risk are no longer able to
access any care. “Our
minimum demand is that
Israel ensures access for all
patients who need treatment
outside Gaza,” said
Miri Weingarten of PHR-I.
Medical supplies
Supplies of 91 out of 416
essential drugs have run out,
as have about a third of
essential medical supplies,
according to the Gaza
ministry of health and the
WHO. For example, most
children's antibiotics have
run out.
Also, some 3,600 chronic
psychiatric patients have
had their treatment
stopped, as over half of the
needed medicines are no
longer available, according
to the UN Children's Fund
and WHO statistics
published by the UN’s
Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA).
The difficulties procuring
medicines are largely related
to the fiscal problems of the
Palestinian Authority (PA)
due to the international
financial sanctions placed
on the PA following the Hamas election victory in early 2006, and which were
lifted in June, after the formation of a new government without the
Islamic group.
Meanwhile, diagnostic equipment in the public sector is in need of spare
parts, forcing Gaza's impoverished population to turn to expensive
private clinics. Similarly, the WHO reported, seven out of Gaza's 17
incubators are not functioning properly.
Date
of upload: 22nd Jan 2008
