The health care system in the Gaza Strip is severely lacking and cannot fully provide for the needs of the local population. Approximately a year and a half ago, we reported on the difficulties of patients in Gaza who go untreated. Little has changed since. The flaws in the system are due, in part, to neglect over the nearly four decades of Israel’s direct occupation of the Gaza Strip, and to the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip imposed after Hamas came into power in June 2007 - a siege with which Egypt has been cooperating for its own reasons. As part of the siege, Israel limits the import of medical equipment into Gaza. It also imposes restrictions on doctors traveling outside the Gaza Strip to pursue further medical training and specialization.
One outcome of this situation is a harsh reality in which many patients need medical treatment that can only be provided outside the Gaza Strip - in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Jordan, or Israel. As a rule, Israeli authorities permit patients to enter Israel for medical care only in life-and-death cases. Although permits are sometimes issued for people suffering from severe but non-life threatening conditions, even then the treatment is sometimes cut short because authorities refuse to issue additional permits. The criteria for issuing permits for what Israel calls “quality of life” medical care are unknown. This leaves patients in a constant state of uncertainty. Many have no choice but to go without care, including people suffering from severe orthopedic problems, hearing and visual impairment and other grave illnesses.
Full Report
http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20160112_gaza_patients
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