Monday, December 31, 2012

The PA's Ministry of Health

Sammy responded to the reply by Muhammad from yesterday:

"Professor AngryArab,
I saw Mohamed's response to my message you posted on your blog. He challenged me to "document a single case" of Palestinians dying due to simple illnesses due to the lack of qualified doctors and adequate medical equipment in the West Bank. Well, check it out below (these are just a few, italics are mine).
You and your readers know very well the whole Palestinian Authority is a sham. Mohamed sounds more like a propagandists rather than a doctor working in the West Bank. He blames my beef with Ramallah Governor Leila Ghanam due to ‘tribal dispute’. It’s ironic how the current Ramallah governor relishes any opportunity to criticize the Israeli occupation when her previous profession was a senior security official who’s primary job (as we all know) is to protect Israel and its settlers by quelling any Palestinian resistance.
Here is “WHO’s classification on the Palestinian Medical Service”:
"At least 57% of deaths in the West Bank were preventable. " (WHO, May 12, 2012)
"This study in 2 Palestinian hospitals aimed to assess physicians’ knowledge about the risks associated with the use of radiological examinations. A questionnaire answered by 163 physicians revealed many gaps in knowledge. Only one-third of physicians had received a radiation protection course during their undergraduate study or in the workplace. Few physicians were able to answer correctly many scientific, knowledge-based questions. For example, only 6.1% of the respondents were able to identify the ALARA principle and 98.2% did not know that there is no safe dose limit according to international recommendations." ( WHO June 2011, p. 875)
"Preventable injuries from traffic accidents, burns and poisoning are prominent causes of childhood mortality and account for more than one fourth of the deaths in children between the ages of one and five. Preventable accidents and injuries are also responsible for almost one third of all deaths among the 5–39 year age group." (WHO 2000)
"Experts from Birzeit University say death rates among children and expectant mothers have failed to decline in recent years." (BBC 2009)"