Palestinian Health System Facing Major Crisis: WHO

Palestinian Health System Facing Major Crisis, WHO Warns

Palestinian health system is on the edge of collapse due to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a survey published on Monday.

The UN agency praised Palestinian health services for their ability to adapt to the Israeli occupation army’s policy of closures and curfews, but predicted the remaining infrastructure would face a major crisis if the situation endured or worsened.

“Up to 95 per cent of Palestinians were still able to reach a health facility in 2002 ... in spite of severe restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians,” according to the survey carried out in cooperation with the Palestinian health ministry and Al-Quds University.

Although vaccine-preventable and other communicable diseases have been contained since the outbreak of the Intifada against the 36-year old Israeli occupation in September 2000, “there would be a risk of a polio outbreak, if immunization coverage declined further,” the report warned.

The WHO also pointed out that the Palestinian health ministry, thanks to humanitarian aid, has so far been able to provide free health insurance to the ever-increasing proportion of Palestinians unable to pay.

“However, in the long term, it will be difficult for the Palestinian ministry of health and the international community to sustain these emergency measures which are currently minimizing the impact of limited access to health services on the populations health,” it added.

“In the case of a further deterioration of the economic situation and with the increasing poverty in the occupied Palestinian territories, the functioning of the entire health sector will be put at risk,” the survey said.

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