Emergency Response
Introduction
The Main Activities
Mobile Clinics Program
Ambulances Services
Overall goal
Coverage
First aid and community support training
The Right to Health
Introduction
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PMRS Ambulance Driver Negotiating With Soldiers about Access to Injured |
The right to adequate healthcare has been identified as being one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, political belief, economic or social condition.“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services… |
” Article 25(1) of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights.
The PMRS Emergency Response Program started in 1996 in response to confrontations between unarmed Palestinian civilians and the Israeli army. Attempts by the public to attend the wounded have shown that people are unaware of the basic principles of fist aid, often complicating the situation rather than helping to solve it. Therefore, PMRS took the initiative to establish a program for training the public on first aid skills.
By the time when Al-Aqsa Intifada for independence started in September 2000, a total of 18000 first aid providers were already trained by PMRS and were able to utilize their skills in attending to the wounded in the field of clashes.
The increasing level of Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people, collective punishment and isolation of towns and villages by over 120 military checkpoints and numerous roadblocks, Palestinian workers have been prevented from reaching their workplaces and many lost their jobs in Israel. In result, unemployment rate soared to 60% and poverty rate reached up to 75% of the population. In response, PMRS expanded its services to remote and isolated areas through mobile medical teams.
The situation further deteriorated with the Israeli army reoccupying the Palestinian towns and villages and imposing prolonged curfews. To cope with these new developments, PMRS started to operate emergency medical centers inside the towns to help attend to the wounded, transport emergency cases, provide staple food supplies to blockaded families and people in need.
The Emergency Response Program seeks to provide emergency health services to patients in isolated villages and in towns under curfew, train community members on the provision of first aid, ensure patients’ access to medications and surgical treatment in Palestinian hospitals and abroad and provide food assistance during incursions and curfews.
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Wall in Jayuos Area
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The continuous construction of the Apartheid Wall has not only limited access to health-care services, but has cut off the citizens of some villages completely from accessing any kind of medical services and made it impossible for medical teams to pass through. Presently, those stuck between the wall and the green line are the worst affected. |
Once the Wall has been completed, the number of affected people will rise up to 425,000. It will isolate 41 clinics and 64 communities living in 28 clusters.
The segregationist apartheid-style policies employed by the Israeli authorities and the subsequent restrictions imposed on the Palestinian people are in contravention to multiple international declarations and conventions to which Israel is party. Israel has been internationally condemned for the racist ideology and the collective punishments which it employs against the Palestinian population, but there has not yet been sufficient international pressure to induce a change.
The segregation barrier has isolated thousands of people from any access to a health care facility and has caused total fragmentation of the healthcare network, making referral to secondary and tertiary care almost impossible, and forcing the Palestinians to duplicate primary care services on a micro level in order to ensure access for the target population. This puts almost unbearable strain on an already overstretched system.
This in combination with the overall economic decline of the West Bank, due to its economic strangulation by the segregation barrier, puts constraints on the quality and quantity of service that can be delivered to the population.
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As the segregation barrier extends to the southern part of the West Bank and through Jordan Valley, the problems already witnessed, both for vulnerability to poor health and for health care access are likely to get worse. The human rights situation will deteriorate. |
Prayer in Um Salamona Confiscated Land |
As a result of the continuous closure of areas Palestinians have faced obstacles to obtaining health care such as:
• Access restricted or denied to health centers and hospitals.
• Medication Shortages.
• Interruption of vaccination program.
• Lack of follow-up on Chronic Diseases
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The internal and external closure of the villages and towns, in addition to the continuous construction of the Apartheid Wall has not only increased limited access to health-care services, but has cut off the citizens of some villages completely from accessing any kind of medical services and had made it impossible for medical teams to pass through. For example several times our teams were denied access to Azzun Atmeh in Qalqylia and Bartaa ash Sharqiya in Jenin. |
Qalqilia City Surrounded by the Wall |
Alleviate the suffering of patients by providing them with treatment, medications and referral for diagnostic services or surgical procedures through mobile clinics, individual medical assistance and ambulance services.
Target area & Population
All Palestinian territories (towns and villages).In particular those who are under siege and closure were people are suffering from difficult health and economical situation.
The Main Activities
• Mobile clinic services
• Ambulances services
• First aid and emergency training
• Individual relief
Mobile Clinics Program
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Gaza Mobile Clinic Team |
PMRS mobile clinics regained their active role with Al-Aqsa Intifada for Independence and the increasing level of Israeli collective punishment measures, mainly restrictions on mobility and preventing workers from accessing their jobs in Israel. The need for this type of service became evident in view of the deteriorating economic situation of the population and obstruction of patients’ access to treatment services. |
The operation of mobile clinics started in February 2001, about four months after the outburst of the Intifada, through the provision of curative and preventive health services.
Overall goal: Facilitate access of patients to health services in view of restricted mobility, alleviate the economic burdens by providing free-of-charge curative services, as well as prevent and minimize the development of medical complications.
Areas covered: Most villages in the West bank and Gaza Strip. The targeted localities should be
• Directly affected by the Wall.
• Isolated and marginalized.
• Lacking health services provision
• Under emergency situation.
PMRS is operating 8 mobile clinics in W .B and Gaza supported by different donors such as ECHO and Oxfam in cooperation with medico international , care international, and Oxfam S.B The mobile clinic reaching …..localities in Gaza strip Jenin ,Tulkarm ,Qalqilia, Nablus Ramallah ,Hebron ,and Salfit with total beneficiaries (in 2006) of.....
Ambulances Services
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The idea of providing ambulance services originated due to the huge difficulties in mobility between towns and villages and the need to assist patients to access hospitals. Another factor was the need to support the increasingly expanding emergency services, first aid, mobile clinics and individual assistance in times of curfews. |
PMRS Nablus Ambulance Providing Emergency Services during Invasion |
Ambulance services include:
• Transporting patients from villages to medical facilities in towns.
• Transporting the wounded from clash sites to medical facilities.
• Providing different emergency services in times of curfews.
Overall goal:
To serve patients and wounded persons in difficult situations of curfews, closures and siege and to facilitate the work of medical teams.
Coverage:
The Program covers all towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
There has been a need to increase the number of ambulances in response to the increase in the need for emergency services and the expansion of PMRS reach by emergency teams and mobile clinics.
In 2006, only 8 ambulances are providing free of charge services. PMRS Ambulances supported with volunteers used to answer the specific emergency needs. Despite all difficulties and dangers a great job was done in this field. Our teams provided pre-hospital emergency care to thousands of people after being attacked by Israeli soldiers, while trying to resist the construction of the apartheid wall on their land.
In the year 2006, our ambulances have been delayed access 95 times, and denied passage to Jerusalem 9 times. This is in addition to violations against teams in 23 occasions. The ambulances teams are trained on regular basis on Basic life Support, Trauma life Support and Human services. last training was conducted on November 2006 in cooperation with P.H.R .
First aid and community support training
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First Aid Teams Providing Emergency Services to Injured in Ramallah Area |
The main goal behind the establishment of the First Aid Training is to train people on first aid skills in order to enable them to provide first aid to the wounded in the correct way, avoiding causing unnecessary complications. This way, the trained persons can assist their communities in times of emergency. |
The Program seeks to operate in every community, school, university, institution or any other location, by training a team of fist aid providers.
The overall goal: Provide proper first aid services to the wounded and assist Palestinian communities in times of emergency.
Coverage:
The Program reaches all regions, focusing on schools, universities and clubs, particularly in villages and remote areas lacking emergency services.
Due to the prevailing situation and reoccupation of Palestinian towns, the Program developed an emergency plan aiming at intensifying training on first aid and emergency management, forming emergency committees in villages and assisting them in managing emergency issues actively in their communities.
Two kinds of first aid and emergency training courses are provided to trainees: the first course (21 hours) provides training on most common injuries like wounds, fractures, shock, burns, and poisoning. This training is usually conducted for students, mothers and young people. The second course (36 hours) is a comprehensive training on basic life support, conducted for health providers, teachers and PMRS volunteers. Since 1996, about 40 thousand people have been trained; 60% of them are providing first aid services to their communities.
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All first aid teams are regularly supplied with first aid material in order to function actively in their communities, and provided with the latest information in order to upgrade their skills. |
One of our Volunteers in Nablus Helping injured |
Individual relief
One of the main concerns of the emergency program is to provide assistance to individual social cases by offering medications, specialized lab tests, and treatment in Palestine and abroad. The objective of these services is to relieve the financial burdens facing families and respond to the increasing need for services that are either lacking or of high cost. ….children suffering from congenital heart diseases and liver failure were referred to Italy for surgery in cooperation with
Facts on the ground
II – Emergency centers:
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Despite the Danger PMRS‘s Volunteers fulfilling their Duty during curfews |
In response to the Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian towns and the imposed prolonged curfews on the Palestinians, PMRS immediately resorted to operating emergency centers in all occupied towns under curfew. A hotline was established to receive people’s requests for medical assistance. |
Medical consultations were provided over the phone to mild cases and chronic patients. Physicians were dispatched to patients’ houses to examine and treat intermediate cases, while severe cases were transported to the hospital by ambulance.
Since citizens were not prepared to such prolonged curfews, the majority suffered acute shortage in food supplies. In response to this need, PMRS took the initiative in distributing food supplies to needy families through the efforts of emergency teams and volunteers, who reached families by ambulances and even on foot.
This Program has assisted in alleviating the difficult situation people have been through in terms of health and psychological impact.
The overall goal: To provide urgent assistance to the wounded, ill and needy individuals ad families living under curfews and in difficult health, psychological and economic situation.
Coverage: All towns under reoccupation and curfew.
To run such difficult program, PMRS had to increase the level of its preparedness, train emergency teams on dealing with emergencies and recruiting international volunteers to facilitate the work of emergency teams and disclose the facts on the grounds and people’s sufferings to the world.
Activities and results:
1. The Program established 226 emergency clinics focusing on:
• Provision of treatment to patients by direct medical consultation or over the phone and provision of treatment to chronic cases, reaching about 66018 patients.
• Provision of food supplies to 17821 families and baby food to 13775 child.