05:14
The healthcare system in conflict-hit Gaza is on the “verge of complete collapse” with doctors working in “appalling” conditions, a consultant surgeon has told CGTN Europe.
Nick Maynard, a consultant surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust who has traveled to Gaza many times over the past 15 years, explained to CGTN’s Jamie Owen the issues health workers face as the Israel-Gaza conflict continues.
He said: “It’s always challenging working in Gaza, but of course, hugely rewarding as well. And they’re wonderful people to work with. But the circumstances under which they’re working now are, as you could imagine, appalling.
“And they’re working in a healthcare system which is on the verge of complete collapse.”
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Maynard also revealed that some hospitals have been unable to run any equipment that requires electricity, such as ventilators, while blood products and water are also at worrying low levels.
“Their supplies have either completely run out or on the verge of running out. They have virtually no more blood products left. They’ve run out of surgical gloves,” he said. “So between operations, they have to wash surgical gloves and use them again. They’ve got very little water.
“They recurrently run out of fuel for their generators so they have no electricity. In Shifa Hospital, which is the main hospital I’ve worked in, on several occasions the last three days, they’ve run out of fuel, their generators have stopped.”
As a result, Maynard said, medics are effectively unable to help some patients.
“The only patients they can treat at the moment are victims of trauma,” he said. “Patients with other medical conditions, such as cancer or diabetes or infectious diseases or heart disease, they really cannot treat at all. Those patients will not get any treatment. And even the trauma patients, they are now overwhelmed and are struggling to treat all of those.”
People inspect the area of Al-Ahli hospital where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast. /Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters
People inspect the area of Al-Ahli hospital where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast. /Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters
“They’ve been unable to run any equipment that requires electricity, such as ventilators, until they get a bit more fuel in.”
The consultant surgeon, who was due to travel to Gaza this weekend but that visit has been halted due to the fighting, has been in regular contact with colleagues on the ground.
He added: “They’re all working hard. Many of them have lost close family or friends have been killed. We know doctors and nurses and medical students who’ve been killed in the last week.
“Some of the people I know very well are working, not knowing whether their families are alive or dead because they can’t communicate with them. So and yet they’re still working.
“They’ve been told to evacuate by the Israeli government, but they’re refusing to leave. They’re refusing to leave their patients, even in the knowledge that they may well die as a result of staying where they are.”
Maynard has spent a decade and a half traveling to work in Gaza. “I’ve had two roles over there: I’ve led a team of doctors from Oxford to teach medical students and doctors over there every year for nearly 15 years,” he explained.
“And in recent years, I’ve also been working with medical aid for Palestinians to carry out and teach surgery out there. My particular specialty is cancer of the stomach and the esophagus, and so I’ve been helping them set up advanced cancer surgery services to treat those patients.”
He was due to return to Gaza this weekend to lead a round of operations, but has had to postpone his visit. Even so, medical charities are appealing for help as soon as possible.
“We had a whole week of cancer operations that we were lining up to do,” he said. “I’m in regular contact with Medical Aid For Palestinians, the UK-based charity who supports me going out there, and they are looking for volunteers and building up a team of volunteers – of whom I am one – to get out there as soon as there is a ceasefire and it’s safe to travel. But when that will be, who knows?”
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