Cancer patients in the West Bank and Gaza without treatment

Mervat Sadeq-Ramallah

A Palestinian citizen, Bassem Qaddoura, from Qalqilya, is still waiting for a dose of chemotherapy after he was told by Al-Mutlaa Hospital (Augusta Victoria) in Jerusalem three weeks ago that treatment is not available.

Kaddoura, who suffers from cancer, does not know when to receive the therapeutic dose until he receives it.

Qaddoura, 67, says he discovered leukemia two years ago. Five months ago, he received a medical referral from the Palestinian Authority to cover his chemotherapy at Al-Mutala 'hospital in Jerusalem, where he is not available in West Bank hospitals.

Kaddoura case is one of hundreds of cancer patients referred by the Palestinian Ministry of Health every month for chemotherapy, especially from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Al-Mutlaa Hospital, but the hospital declared that the treatments were running out after pharmaceutical companies stopped providing it due to a financial crisis due to the accumulation of PA debts. For the benefit of the hospital.

Qaddoura blames the Palestinian Authority for the suffering because it does not divert the cost of treating patients "whose hospital is acting inappropriately.

Debt
The Palestinian government announced on Sunday the transfer of 20 million shekels ($ 5.7 million) as part of its debts to the hospital, in addition to five million transferred earlier this month, but the hospital administration says that the amount is only 10% of the debt and refused to do so to resume treatment.

Hospital director Walid Nemour told Al Jazeera Net that the authority has transferred 20 million shekels out of 200 million shekels ($ 57 million) in debt, which does not solve the financial crisis.

While the PA says its debts are as high as 68 million shekels ($ 19.4 million), the hospital administration responded that this amount covers the period until the beginning of 2019 only, and that the rest of the indebtedness has been agreed with the authority.

The hospital director admitted that in the past two weeks, some 200 patients - most of whom received expensive chemotherapy doses - were not treated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, especially those with leukemia.

Al-Mutlaa Hospital, which specializes in treating cancer patients, received around 15,000 patients from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2018.

According to Tigers, negotiations to collect debts from the Authority began four months ago, but the latter stalled in repayment, prompting the hospital to escalate media.

While Palestinian Health Minister Mai Kaila said the Palestinian Authority was transferring 5 million shekels a month ($ 1.4 million) to every hospital in Jerusalem, Tigers said the hospital needed 10 million shekels a month ($ 2.8 million) to buy medicines only.

crisis
Government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem told Al Jazeera Net that the government is committed to paying its debt bills, and has initiated the payment of 25 million shekels ($ 7.1 million) until the hospital met its obligations towards patients.

He expressed the government's readiness to schedule the remaining debts, and called on the hospital to accept the transfer of power as a first payment of the account.

"The debts have been accumulated in Jerusalem hospitals since the US aid was cut off last year after the administration of President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at the end of 2017," he said.

Debts have escalated in the past year because of the financial crisis that has hit the Palestinian Authority and made it unable to pay the salaries of its employees since Israel decided to deduct 100 million shekels ($ 28.5 million) from the tax funds transferred to the Palestinian Authority monthly because of the payment of allowances for martyrs and prisoners.

Melhem revealed that the Palestinian government had contacts on Monday with Arab countries to provide financial support to Jerusalem's hospitals, including Al Mutlaa, and five other hospitals.

Palestinians in solidarity with the patients launched the campaign "Save cancer patients" in the last two days, and organized vigils yesterday in front of the Palestinian government headquarters coincided with a sit-in for doctors and patients in front of Al-Mutlaa Hospital in Jerusalem and against the Oncology Center in Gaza.

Activists carried banners calling for cancer patients to be spared the consequences of the crisis between the authorities and hospitals and provide immediate treatment.

"The patients and their families are living in bad psychological conditions due to the obstruction of their treatment," said Mahmoud Haribat, a relative of a woman with leukemia in the Hebron governorate.