Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched a new initiative, themed “Lifeline of Dignity and Life for Gaza,” to support the Palestinian people by inviting medical professionals in and out of Qatar to volunteer and provide emergency health care for patients and injured people in Gaza.
In a press statement, Dr Mohamed Salah Ibrahim, director of Relief and International Development Division at QRCS, said: “Inspired by the ideals of humanitarian solidarity and medical duty, QRCS calls upon medical professionals in Qatar and all over the world to join the medical teams that would be deployed to Gaza to back the health sector in various vital medical specialisations such as orthopaedics, general surgery, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, paediatric surgery, thoracic surgery, and nursing”.
Dr Ibrahim noted that the goals of these volunteering medical teams are to examine and treat thousands of patients who need critical medical interventions, perform major surgeries that require expertise and advanced medical equipment, and train the local medical personnel of Palestinian hospitals.
He emphasised the importance of this support for Palestine’s medical sector, as the medical personnel had been overloaded with non-stop work for over a month, despite the bombing of medical facilities.
According to him, QRCS will also secure necessary medical consumables and equipment for local hospitals, which have severe shortages in medicines and medical supplies.
“Within just 48 hours of its launch, the initiative attracted more than 700 volunteer medical professionals in different specialisations, both from Qatar and beyond,” Dr Ibrahim revealed. “All medical professionals are invited to contribute to such noble humanitarian efforts and provide medical care for those in need in the blockade”.
Earlier this year, QRCS implemented a similar volunteering initiative to engage medical teams in the emergency response to the Syria-Turkey earthquake.
QRCS has a strategic programme of medical convoys and relief camps in many disaster-affected parts of the world, including Yemen, Sudan, Gaza, Bangladesh, Somalia, and other countries with failing health systems and growing needs for life-saving medical services.
QRCS has 44 doctors working in Palestine’s public hospitals, thanks to its programme to develop surgical services in Gaza through recruitment and training. These doctors received their postgraduate specialisation studies under the Amiri Medical Scholarships programme, implemented by QRCS since 2003, in co-operation with Hamad Medical Corporation and Palestine’s Ministry of Health.
The programme helped to reduce neonatal mortality rates at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex from 30% to less than 10%. Also, cardiology and eye surgery referrals abroad were down by approximately 70% and 90% respectively.
Surgical interventions by QRCS doctors in Palestine.
