Slow and preventable deaths of Gazans with cancer may never be counted among the war casualties, even if they are a direct result of that conflict
Ghada Abuarqoub , suspects that her cancer has spread because of a lack of follow up at Palestinian government hospitals. Photograph: Sally HaydenYousef Hamamreh, head of cancer care at East Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria hospital, refuses to sit at the desk in his basement office – he says he doesn’t deserve the respect and honour it conveys.
Yousef Hamamreh, head of cancer care at East Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria hospital. Photograph: Sally Hayden “A critical shortage of medicines in the Palestinian public healthcare system is driving patients to seek treatment in the private market, where soaring prices are unaffordable for most families,” she said. “We have encountered diabetic patients unable to access insulin and kidney transplant recipients struggling to buy costly medications necessary to prevent transplant rejection. The daily horror these patients endure is heartbreaking.
In Gaza, the percentage of patients approved to leave the strip for medical care in East Jerusalem dropped from 92 per cent in 2012 to 62 per cent in 2016, the paper said.
Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem is operating at less than 50 percent capacity due to a lack of funding, its head of cancer care said. Photograph: Sally Hayden
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