UNITED NATIONS: UN workers delivering medical supplies to the Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza have described the emergency department as a “bloodbath,” with hundreds of wounded people inside and a constant flow of new patients.
World Health Organization (WHO) said that patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor, and no pain management was available in the hospital. It said that the emergency department is so full that employees must take care not to step on patients on the floor.
Al-Shifa Hospital, formerly the most important and largest referral hospital in the enclave, is now barely functioning: the operating theaters and other major services are not working due to a lack of fuel, oxygen, supplies, and specialized medical staff. The facility is only able to provide basic trauma stabilization and has no blood for transfusion.
A handful of doctors and nurses, and some seventy volunteers, are working under what WHO staff described as “unbelievably challenging circumstances” in a health facility “in need of resuscitation.”
In a statement released on Saturday, WHO said that it is committed to strengthening Al-Shifa Hospital in the coming weeks so that it can restart at least basic functionality, provide critically required lifesaving services, and serve besieged people trapped in a cycle of destruction, hunger, disease, and death.
Substantial additional specialized medical, nursing, and support staff, including emergency medical teams, are urgently required, and basic humanitarian needs are not being fulfilled: tens of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in the facility, which is experiencing a severe shortage of safe water and food.
Hospitals in Gaza Amidst Israeli Bombardments
Currently, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital remains the only partially functional health facility in north Gaza, along with three minimally functional hospitals – Al Awda, Al-Shifa, and Al Sahaba Medical Complex – down from twenty-four hours before the conflict.
WHO has serious concerns about the unfolding situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, which has reportedly been at the center of a military operation.
