GAZA, Jan 26 (NNN-WAFA) – Seven mobile clinics were established in the Gaza Strip, to treat COVID-19 cases and ease the burden on the Health Ministry.
Hussam al-Safady, project coordinator at the non-government Caritas Foundation, that set up the clinics, said, each mobile clinic has a doctor, a nurse and a driver, whose responsibilities are to visit patients’ homes, follow up on their health conditions, and provide them with medicine and equipment.
The Caritas Foundation, an international medical institution, designed to deal with marginalised patients, decided to establish mobile clinics in the coastal enclave, to provide ordinary Palestinians with medical assistance they needed, since the Gaza health authority declared its first two cases of the virus in Mar, 2020, according to al-Safady.
“At that time, we helped tens of thousands of patients get their medicines and helped them avoid being infected with the novel virus,” he said.
Despite the good intentions and the great work, the virus did not stop spreading. At the end of Aug, 2020, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry imposed a series of preventive and precautionary measures, to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The situation got worse, especially amid the lack of medical equipment in the Gaza Strip, said al-Safady.
“This is the reason why we suggested helping the Health Ministry, by following up on the patients as well as those who required home quarantine.”
So far, the medical staff has dealt with about 20,000 cases, including patients and their contacts.
Raed Kuhail, a local internist from Gaza, joined the mobile clinics four months ago, as he saw that the health situation kept deteriorating.
The 36-year-old father of three said, the rapid spread of the virus has “confused” the health system, forcing the clinics to impose home quarantine on the infected people who did not suffer from chronic diseases.
The internist said, he and his colleagues in other mobile clinics used to visit about 40 to 70 cases in all governorates in the Gaza Strip.
Hedaya Mohammed, a local nurse in her 30’s, said, she was happy to take her place in a mobile clinic to help other people.
The coastal enclave has been suffering from limited health services, especially after the enclave was put under a tight Israeli blockade in 2007, when Hamas took control of the strip, she said.
“In Gaza, we do not have a modern health system, which may expose all of us to infection with the virus,” the young nurse said, while wearing her protective suit in front of a local house, to follow up on an infection.
Samira al-Naaizy, a 52-year-old mother of eight from Gaza city, was infected with the virus. She said, the mobile clinics helped her and other patients to get treatment in the comforts of their homes.
Ibrahim Nassar is another patient infected with the virus, from Khan Younis city, in the southern Gaza Strip. He said that the medical staff treated him and four members of his family in the mobile clinics.
The 35-year-old father of two praised the mobile clinics’ medical services, saying, “The crisis pushed all people to bear their roles towards each other, to overcome the critical period.”– NNN-WAFA
