The health sector in Gaza has been experiencing tragic conditions as a result of the war of constant extermination on the sector since October 7, 2023, which targeted hospitals, medical centers and medical cadres, and the siege that prevents the treatment of treatment requirements to the sector.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization warned of the serious deterioration in the health conditions in the Gaza Strip, in light of the suffocating blockade imposed on the Strip for nearly two months, and the prevention of the entry of humanitarian and medical aid.
“The health situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and we are very close to the abyss,” said the organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris.
She emphasized that the Palestinians in Gaza are deprived of the basics of life, including food, clean water and shelter, as well as the inability to obtain health care, noting that the Palestinians are afraid of even going to the hospital because of targeting many of them.
Al -Jazeera met the health of two doctors who returned recently from Gaza, after they spent two weeks in a medical delegation belonging to the “Rahma around the world”.
Draining the energies of the health sector
Dr. Diaa Ahmed Rashdan (a first consultant in ophthalmology and its surgery) – the head of the ophthalmology department at Sidra Medical Hospital in Qatar – said that he performed 86 surgeries during this period, which included eye injuries caused by bruises, whether leading to closed injuries or bruises, and white water operations caused by eye bruises, white white water and white water associated with age, examining cases and following up operations in Clinics, and also to conduct in -kind consultations in hospital wings, especially intensive care.
Dr. Rashdan worked at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis.
And in statements to the island, health – about the many difficulties facing the health sector in general, and in the field of eye health in particular, most notably the continuation of the war and the depletion of all the health sector energies such as human and material resources, the lack of consumers needed to perform in -kind surgeries, the lack of consumers needed to operate devices for in -kind operations, and the lack of sufficient numbers of surgeries to perform surgeries and thus the need to wait for sterilization Surgical tools, which impedes the ability to perform large numbers of operations per day.
Difficulties also include a lack of quality cleaning of surgical tools, especially precision before sterilizing them due to the lack of ultrasound cleaning devices, worn medical devices and the damage of many of them, and the lack of sufficient nursing cadres to cover work for long hours in the event of wanting to perform large numbers of operations per day, and accumulate long lists for patients to wait to perform surgical operations.
Rashdan pointed out that the basics of daily health care from water, cleaning materials, sanitation, lack of clean housing, and lack of clean drinking water and healthy food to recover from diseases and prevent them.
One of the things that has greatly affected Dr. Rashdan is “the inability to provide service for the cases that came to clinics in the hope of performing surgeries for them and we were unable to tighten time or the need for a long follow -up that is not possible to narrow the time of the medical mission or the lack of consumers necessary To communicate others. “
Life insistence
Dr. Rashdan said that it was striking to see young children who play between destruction with their paper visions that they made with their hands and their insistence on life.
In response to a question, “With your estimation, how much effort and time needs the health sector in Gaza to return to before the war,” Rashdan said that unfortunately the health sector needs to be rehabilitated in infrastructure from approximately zero point, including buildings, medical devices, ambulances, cleaning and sterilization systems, archiving and medical records in addition to rebuilding continuing medical education systems and training new doctors.
He added that the more the infrastructure mentioned above is available, the more quickly the health system is rebuilt, but the voltage is very large.
Dr. Rashdan said, “I touched a high appreciation. Thank you very much from the patients and colleagues in the hospital for the effort submitted to them, as Karam and the kindness of the people of Gaza and their insistence on life despite the lack of its ingredients, and despite the tragedies that afflicted every individual and every house.”
Fatigue and fatigue suffering from the medical staff
Dr. Anas Hijjawi, an orthopedic and joint surgery specialist, said that he personally treated directly with cases of shelling injury, most of which were severe and complex, and included open fractures. Due to the scarcity of resources, the surgical intervention was often limited to the principle of “DAMAGE Control Ortropedics”, that is, the initial installation of fractures with the least possible intervention, in order to ensure the life of the injured and reduce the duration of anesthesia.
Hijjawi added that his work was in the Department of Password Surgery at Nasser Medical Complex.
He said – in special statements to the island – that the most prominent difficulties we faced were the acute shortage of medical consumer, sterilization tools, and the tools needed to install fractures. In addition, the extent of exhaustion and fatigue suffered by the medical staff, as a result of continuous work without stopping since the beginning of the aggression, despite the great personal calamities that affected many of them, as some of them lost his loved ones and even his entire family.
Hijjawi added that “one of the most important situations that left myself the position of one of the nurses in the Nasser Medical Complex, who was talking to us about his farewell to his child, his parents and his wife every morning before going to work. After hours of his speech, we heard the news of the bombing of his house, where his father and mother lost.
In response to our question about what the health sector in Gaza needs, Hijjawi said, “It is an urgent need for real and continuous support from the international community and individuals. The shortage includes everything: equipment, cadres, training, and financing. This sector is the first pillar of steadfastness in the face of the aggression machine, and it is the duty of every free person to contribute to its support.”
Lack of all supplies
The World Health spokeswoman said that doctors and nurses suffer from a lack of all necessary supplies to help the wounded, adding that health sector workers lack blood bags, venous injection units, cotton sticks to clean wounds, and antibiotics to protect people from infection.
Harris indicated that there are currently 21 hospitals in Gaza and 4 field hospitals, but that any of them does not have sufficient capacity from the beds to meet the needs, explaining that hospitals for this reason are often forced to send patients to their homes quickly, before they are completely recovering with the aim of receiving new patients.
“This means that health workers are deprived of everything. We are very close to the abyss, so there is a great danger,” she added.
Source : Al Jazeera + Qatar News Agency (Qena)
(Tagstotranslate) Arabic (T) (T) (T) Palestine