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Shortage in anesthetics forces doctors to save them for the most seriously wounded patients. |
With over 350 dead and 1600 injured as a direct result of the continuous attacks by Israel against the Gaza Strip, hospitals in Gaza are in a dire situation. After the 18 month-long Israeli sanctions imposed on Gaza, medical services had already been stretched to the breaking point.
In the hallways of the overcrowded Al-Shifa hospital, the main hospital in the Gaza Strip, tens of people are waiting at the entrances of the surgical operation rooms for their relatives on operating tables inside who have been injured by the attacks of Israeli fighter jets.
"I am waiting here for the doctors to finish their treatment of my son so I can see him," said Abu Hani Abul-Amreen, who's son, a police officer, had been wounded in the recent attacks. "There is nowhere to sit and no place to wait in so that we can avoid getting in the way of the paramedics here."
While walking across the room in which his son is laying, he told IslamOnline.net that, "to be forced to stay here is heartbreaking because I have to hear the cries of my son while he is undergoing his medical treatment."
Abul-Amreen, whose eldest son was assassinated by an Israeli drone in 2004, explained that, "although my son's injuries are not that serious, every time I hear his cries while he is being treated I feel he is going to die."
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In the hallways of the overcrowded Al-Shifa hospital tens of people wait to see their relatives.
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Dr. Hassan Khalaf, the general manager of Al-Shifa hospital told IslamOnline.net that they are in dire need of anesthetics. "We use the small amounts we have for only the most serious of conditions," he explained.
In addition to the shortages in medicines and necessary medical equipment, doctors at the hospital also complain that the number of operation rooms and Intensive Care Units (ICUs) at the hospital are nowhere near sufficient.
"We have five to six patients in rooms designed for two or three," said Khalaf. "We also put seriously wounded patients who need intensive care in ordinary rooms because of the shortage in ICUs and ICU equipment."
The largest hospital in Gaza has 15 ICU beds while there are now more than 190 seriously wounded patients.
The Rafah Crossing
Tension mounted at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza as both sides threw blame at each other for the lack of crossing of wounded Palestinians into Egypt.
"We have been delighted by the Egyptian decision to receive the seriously wounded for treatment in its hospitals, but we are still waiting for the Egyptian ambulances to reach the Gaza hospitals," Dr. Basem Na'eem, minister of health in the Hamas government, told IslamOnline.net on Monday.
As for the reported obstacles regarding the transfer of the wounded into Egypt, he said that they had asked the Egyptian side "to allow their ambulances into Gaza in order to pick up the wounded." However, according to him the Egyptians said they would wait for a permit from the responsible party.
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"We have five to six patients in rooms designed for two or three," said Khalaf.
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After confirming the crossing of some of the seriously wounded into Egypt, Na'eem admitted that the Palestinian side is the reason for the delay, but he attributed this to the shortage of ambulances in Gaza.
"All of our ambulances are spread across the Gaza Strip on standby to pick up the casualties of the expected attacks of the Israeli fighter jets, so we've asked the Egyptian ambulances to cross over into the Strip" to take the wounded into Egypt. By Tuesday morning, 37 wounded Palestinians had crossed into Egypt.
Na'eem complained that the shortage does not only involve the ambulances, but that there is also a shortage of spare parts for many medical equipments.
News reports said that 50 Egyptian doctors with medical supplies arrived in Al-Arish city near Rafah crossing. Al-Jazeera also reported that the Al-Arish blood banks are now so full of donated blood that hospital officials are telling people in Egypt not to donate any more blood.
Medical supplies from Egypt as well as those sent by Libya and Qatar have begun to enter into the Gaza strip through the Rafah crossing. Saudi Arabia has also ordered the delivery of three planeloads of medical supplies to the Gaza Strip via Egypt.
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