On 18 January, Magen David Adom (MDA) in Israel (Israel’s equivalent of a Red Cross National Society), opened an outpatient clinic to provide medical care to Palestinians in need, beside the Erez check point. Staffed by MDA paramedics and volunteer doctors, it is designed to provide primary health care, but it will also be able to recommend transfers of the most serious cases to Israeli hospitals.
Magen David Adom in Israel (Israel’s equivalent of a Red Cross National Society), has opened an outpatient clinic to provide medical care to inhabitants of Gaza injured during the recent hostilities. The clinic was set up on the Israeli side of the border, close to the Erez Check Point.
The clinic is staffed 24 hours a day by doctors specialized in emergency medicine, trauma, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, as well as eye, ear, nose and throat ailments. The clinic also includes an orthopedics department, a laboratory, X-Ray and ultra-sound facilities and a pharmacy. A mobile intensive care unit and 4 ambulances are stationed there. Designed to treat up to 200 people a day, it is equipped to give advanced intensive care treatment until patients can be stabilized and transferred to hospital.
The Magen David Adom Paramedics had barely finished setting up the clinic when they were called to treat the first patient, a 47-year-old Gaza resident, who suddenly collapsed at the Erez security checking point. The staff started advanced life-saving procedures including ventilation by opening his airway, and managed to stabilize his heartbeat and bring up his blood pressure to normal levels after a few minutes. The patient was later transferred to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, in a serious but stable condition. To date, the clinic has treated 25 patients.
Setting up the clinic at very short notice was a logistical challenge, explains MDA Director General Eli Bin: "Many different factors had to be taken into account, and first and foremost, the manning of all the professional positions with volunteer medical personnel."
"From MDA's point of view, every patient - no matter where he lives or what his religion is - is entitled to receive the best and most professional care. Magen David Adom - as the Israeli Red Cross Society - is making every effort to relieve the suffering of the population whether during war, or as a result of natural disasters,” he added.
The costs of the clinic, which is intended as a temporary response to meet the most urgent needs, are included in MDA’s emergency appeal, revised on 18 January. (For more information, click on www.mdais.com).