MSF says facing ‘critical’ medical supply shortage in Gaza
Aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned of “critical” shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, with no resupply for more than two months as the Israeli war wears on. MSF is “facing critical shortages of many things like gauze, gloves … things like that,” paediatrician Amber Alayyan told AFP.
The aid group warned last week in a statement that it had been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since the end of April and called on Israel to open more crossing points into the territory. “We’re seeing people who are injured in bombings, in shootings, in drone attacks,” Alayyan said.
“MSF staff have shifted to changing wound dressings every four days rather than the usual two to save on supplies, she added. MSF now risks running out of vital medication such as anaesthetics needed for surgery. “If we have to continue going like this … we won’t be able to operate. We won’t operate without anaesthesia,” Alayyan said.
‘There are flies in the OR’
Al Jazeera spoke to doctors who volunteer at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and they have sounded the alarm over the dire situation of the healthcare sector in Gaza. Doctor Hina Cheema, an obstetrician-gynecologist who came to Gaza from the United States, said she witnessed “so much hardship here”.
“It’s not just the hospitals, but the entire infrastructure that has been bombed,” Cheema told Al Jazeera. “We’re based in Nasser Hospital, and it blows my mind that two months ago, the hospital was completely nonfunctional.”
Cheema said medical workers lack the most basic equipment and much-needed fuel to keep generators operational. “We are sweating … there are flies in the OR [operating room], but it’s only because they have to cut the air to conserve the fuel,” she said.
Thalia Raya Pachiyannakis, another obstetrician-gynecologist, said doctors do not have soap to wash their hands. Other basic necessities that are missing include drape and disposable gowns,” she told Al Jazeera, stressing that “This is unacceptable.”
More from MSF: Gaza needs to be rebuilt with wheelchair-accessible ramps
The aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has also said that it is concerned about the rising number of amputees in the besieged Gaza Strip. UNRWA, the United Nations body responsible for Palestinian refugees, estimated last month that around 10 children per day were losing one or both legs in Gaza.
Where MSF is involved, “most of the amputations … are being done as life-saving amputations,” MSF’s Amber Alayyan said. Afterwards, “we don’t even have enough wheelchairs in our own hospital … much less prosthetic devices”, she added.
With around 88,000 people wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, it will be a “proper catastrophe for years to come in terms of post-operative care, wound care, amputations, prosthetics”, Alayyan said.
“Gaza itself needs to be rebuilt. So, it’s going to have to be rebuilt with wheelchair-accessible ramps all over the place for the thousands of people who are going to be in wheelchairs,” she said.
“The war needs to stop … the healthcare system is completely destroyed.”
