49% of Gaza’s drugs have ran out, says ministry

Medication supplies in the Gaza Strip have reached dangerously low levels after the decision was made to stop providing hospital and health centres, on 23 May, 2017 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has warned of a severe shortage in the basic health services provided to Palestinians in the enclave.

“Forty-nine per cent of the essential medicines and 29 per cent of the medical supplies in Gaza have run out,” the ministry’s pharmacy department announced yesterday.

Gaza faces a severe shortage in primary health care services and the availability of drugs for dialysis, heart catheterisation and open heart, the ministry added.

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The enclave’s pharmaceutical sector, the ministry pointed out, lacks 53 per cent of its monthly requirement, while the medical tasks sector lacks 21 per cent of its monthly requirement.

The ministry also warned of the occupied city’s poor conditions in the primary care services, which it said currently faces a shortage of over 63 per cent.

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