According to the team, patients with traumatic injuries were being sutured on the floor, the hospital has no pain treatment and the emergency department is so full that workers must be careful not to step on patients on the floor.
Al-Shifa Hospital, previously the most important and largest referral hospital in Gaza, is now barely functioning: operating rooms and other important services are not functioning due to a lack of fuel, oxygen, specialized medical personnel and supplies. The hospital can only provide basic trauma stabilization and does not have blood for transfusions.
A handful of doctors and nurses, and about 70 volunteers, are working in what WHO staff described as “incredibly difficult circumstances” in a hospital “in need of resuscitation.”
In a statement released on Saturday, the WHO said it is committed to strengthening Al-Shifa Hospital in the coming weeks, so that it can resume at least its basic functionality, provide urgently needed vital services and care for “a people under siege.” and trapped in a cycle.” of death, destruction, hunger and disease.”
Significant additional medical, nursing and support staff, including emergency medical teams, are urgently needed and basic humanitarian needs are not being met: tens of thousands of displaced people are taking shelter in the hospital, which is suffering from serious shortages of food and drinking water. .
Currently, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital remains the only partially functional hospital in northern Gaza, along with three minimally functional hospitals (Al-Shifa, Al Awda and Al Sahaba Medical Complex), down from 24 before the conflict. WHO is seriously concerned about the situation developing at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, which has reportedly been the center of a military operation.
The UN workers at Al-Shifa Hospital were participating in a joint UN mission, consisting of staff from the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Department of Safety and Security. of the UN (UNDSS). and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). The team delivered medications and surgical supplies, orthopedic surgery equipment, and anesthesia supplies and medications to the hospital.
