GAZA, October 28, 2017 (WAFA) - More than 45% of Gaza patients, many of them children and elderly, seeking treatment outside of the besiege enclave were unsuccessful in obtaining an Israeli permit to leave Gaza to meet their hospital appointment, a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
Of 1,858 patient applications for a permit in September to exit Gaza through Erez/Beit Hanoun checkpoint with Israel for hospital appointments most of them in East Jerusalem or Israeli hospitals, 55% were approved, 3% were denied, and 42% were delayed with no decision by the time of the patient’s hospital appointment.
Among those delayed there were 140 children under the age of 18 years and 99 people aged 60 years or older, according to the WHO’s monthly report on Gaza referrals and access.
More than half of patient companions were also unsuccessful in obtaining permits to travel out of Gaza, said the report.
Of 2,104 permit applications for patient companions to Israeli authorities in September 2017, 43% were approved, 4% were denied and 53% were delayed, with their application still pending by the time of the patient’s hospital appointment date.
WHO said 24 patients (13 males and 11 females) were requested for interrogation by the Israeli General Security Services at Erez during September. Only two were approved permits to travel for health care and a 27 year-old orthopedic patient was arrested at Erez.
The report said 1,077 requests for financial coverage for Gaza patients were approved by the Services Purchasing Unit of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in September, which was 50% lower than the monthly average of the first quarter 2017 and 37% lower than the corresponding month in 2016.
No access to Egypt was reported during the same period as Rafah terminal between Gaza and Egypt was closed for exit. No medical aid and no medical delegates entered Gaza, said the report.
Latest figures indicate that more than four in every five humanitarian workers in Gaza were unsuccessful in securing permits to exit the Gaza Strip.
M.K.
