The direct Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stopped, but its destructive effects on the health sector left the patients of kidney failure in front of challenges that afflict their fate, in light of the sharp decline in the services provided to them.
And 15 months of the Israeli genocide were spent on the services that were provided to them, and the reality of patients with kidney failure is tragic and they are living in a daily battle for survival.
Among the dialysis centers that have shrunk significantly, the journey of searching for appropriate treatment and an acute shortage of medicines and medical devices, a healthy food loss crisis, and drinking water commensurate with their health condition, patients with kidney failure spent the days They were deprived of care, medicine, and dialysis.
In this context, Dr. Munir Al -Barash, Director General of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, revealed in an interview with the Qatar News Agency, Qena, that “40% of kidney patients in the Gaza Strip died, due to the lack of health services during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, while the danger He threatens those who remain for the difficulty of continuing to provide medical services to them after the aggression stopped.
He continued: “The Ministry of Health is racing against time, to operate the kidney hospital in Gaza, in order to return to provide services to kidney patients who need special care, but the occupation is delaying the introduction of the basic needs to operate hospitals, as for example, no oxygen stations for the sector hospitals, and we have requested this from International organizations. ”
Official and other human rights reports estimated the number of kidney failure patients before the aggression on the Gaza Strip at about 1,100 to 1500 patients, who were receiving treatment and dialysis sessions in (7) centers, which are “Al -Shifa Medical Complex, the Noura Al -Kaabi Center in North Gaza, the Rantisi Children’s Hospital, Al -Quds Hospital, Al -Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al -Balah, Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, and Abu Youssef Al -Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah.
However, during its bloody aggression on Gaza, the occupation forces destroyed all the centers specialized in providing dialysis service except for the department in the Al -Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the center of the Strip, which left its effects on the quality and amount of medical services provided to patients with dialysis, and on the medical staff working in this field.
For his part, Abdel Hakim Al -Sayes, from the industrial kidney department at Al -Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said in an interview with “Qena”: “After the aggression stopped, large numbers of displaced people returned to the northern Gaza Strip, and a huge number of kidney patients flocked to do the tests and perform the washing process in Al -Shifa Hospital due to the destruction of the occupation, most of the other centers to provide services to kidney patients, the difficulties, obstacles and pressure on us increased significantly.
He added that the matter was more imposed, “especially in light of the lack of working medical staff, and the lack of capabilities and tools necessary for our work, and we have appealed to all parties to solve the crisis of dialysis patients, in order to preserve their lives, but the problem still exists and we suffer from a lack of capabilities.”
After the aggression stopped, another aspect emerged in the suffering of kidney patients, especially the elderly, is the difficulty of accessing hospitals and service centers, in light of the widespread destruction of the greeting, streets and roads leading to it.
Some patients are forced to go to dialysis centers on foot, long distances, or pay high money for transportation already lost due to the occupation preventing the fuel used for vehicles, sometimes it may reach more than $ 25 per session, which constitutes an additional burden on patients.
Dr. Al -Barash called for urgent intervention and the provision of nursing, technical and medical cadres, in addition to the consumers and treatments necessary to operate the services of dialysis more effectively, and to provide fuel continuously to ensure the work of the kidney departments without interruption.