Israel warned over impending health disaster in Gaza
Haaretz
Date: 01-26-05
By Akiva Eldar
The disengagement plan will cause a humanitarian disaster if Israel and the donor countries fail to make preparations for rehabilitating the Palestinians health system in the Gaza Strip, Physicians for Human Rights said in a report released Wednesday.
The organization warns that Israel must continue after the pullout to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza for life-saving treatments either in Israel or abroad. At the same time, the organization says, Israel is obliged to plan and implement the rehabilitation of the Palestinian health system, which has been in dire straits in recent years.
The report notes, for example, that the beds per capita ratio in Palestinian hospitals is 614:1, as opposed to 145:1 in Israel.
In light of the state of the Palestinian health system, thousands of patients from the Gaza Strip are required every year to seek treatment at hospitals in Israel, East Jerusalem, the West Bank or overseas. Hospitals in Gaza, for example, don't perform catheterizations or cardiac surgery, and don't have the facilities to treat burn victims, administer radiotherapy, carry out MRI scans and more.
The report states that thus far Israel has done nothing to continue allowing patients who require medical services unavailable in Gaza to seek such services outside the Strip following the pullout.
Physicians for Human Rights estimates that some $250 million a year will be needed to bring the medical services in Gaza up to the level available in Jordan.
Source
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