The medicine crisis in the Gaza Strip continues to escalate to unprecedented levels, threatening the lives of thousands of patients who stand in long queues at hospital doors, hoping their medication will arrive before complications arise.
The situation is dire, as described by Alaa Adnan Helles, Director of the Hospital Pharmacy Department at the Gaza Ministry of Health, who believes that “the health sector is experiencing one of its most difficult periods.”
Heles says, “We are facing a de facto collapse. More than 55% of essential medicines are unavailable, and more than 71% of medical supplies have reached zero. The ministry’s warehouses are nearly empty, and patients are paying the price daily.”
He adds that key services have completely ceased, most notably open-heart surgery, while orthopedic and oncology services are “deteriorating day by day.”
The director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex also confirmed in a previous statement that out of 170,000 wounded individuals, 42,000 require urgent surgeries, amidst a severe shortage of supplies and medications.
