Gaza's Healthcare System On Verge Of Collapse

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 (Bernama) -- As Palestine struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuous Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip since May 10 could likely cause the Palestinian enclave's healthcare system to collapse soon. Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Dr Medhat Abbas when contacted by Bernama Tuesday, said hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed with patients and operating with severe shortages of medicine due to the Israeli siege and blockade imposed for the past 15 years. He warned that if the number of people injured grow at the current rate, all 2,200 hospital beds in Gaza would be fully occupied soon. “Most of the patients are treated in the emergency room and go back home but with the increasing number of patients being admitted every day, I can’t imagine what is going to happen. “We already have 2,000 injured patients in eight days of the attack with at least 40 per cent of them being admitted,” he said adding that they are putting extra beds in the corridors of hospitals. Dr Medhat who is the former director-general of Al-Shifa Hospital also stressed that hospitals might run out of electricity following the Israeli move to cut electricity supply and block shipments of fuel into Gaza. “We used to receive 140 megawatts of electricity but now we only get 20 megawatts from Israel because they have attacked most of the infrastructures in Gaza Strip. Now we have no electricity and no fuel to run the generators at the hospitals,” he said. Apart from the wounded, Dr Medhat said patients with other diseases also have limited access to proper treatment in the Gaza Strip, which is one of the most densely populated areas in the world with a population of two million. He said that a patient expected to undergo radiotherapy treatment for cancer outside of Gaza Strip was not allowed to travel on time and subsequently died. “Patients who have kidney failure and have undergone a kidney transplant procedure should undergo immunosuppressive therapy to avoid their bodies from rejecting the new kidney and this treatment is not available (in Gaza). “Thanks to Egypt which has opened the border and on Monday received three of our patients. But what about the rest?” he said. Dr Medhat said healthcare facilities in Gaza were also damaged in Israeli attacks, among them were the Beit Hanoun Hospital and Indonesian Hospital as well as primary healthcare centres, Hala Al Shwa and Al Daraj. “On Monday, they have attacked an area across the Health Ministry headquarters which has a very big clinic called Al Rimal. Six of my colleagues were wounded,” he said. He added the Israeli airstrikes also damaged the sole laboratory in Gaza that processes test results for COVID-19 and a quarantine centre. To date, Palestine has recorded a total of 304,074 COVID-19 cases and 3,437 deaths. Dr Medhat said two of his colleagues, Dr Ayman Abu al-Ouf and Dr Mooein Ahmad al-Aloul, were also killed in Israeli strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave. He said Dr Mooein, a 66-year-old retired psychiatric neurologist, was killed at his home in an early morning missile attack in the al-Wehda district of Gaza on Sunday, while Dr Ayman, the head of internal medicine at Al-Shifa hospital, was killed with his wife and daughter in the same attack. “Dr Ayman used to train doctors to become specialists. He was one of the prominent figures leading the COVID-19 treatment in Gaza. His daughter was about to marry in a month's time. “The civil defence has not enough equipment because of the siege, so they are not able to retrieve all the bodies trapped under the rubble,” he said. Dr Medhat added that roads leading to the main hospitals in Gaza had been destroyed, hence ambulances took a longer time to bring the injured to hospitals. The ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 213 Palestinians in the past nine days. -- BERNAMA