3 March 2016
This year, Medical Aid for Palestinians launched a new partnership with the St John’s Eye Hospital, which will see us supporting a mobile clinic providing examination and eye care to communities across the West Bank. Last month we joined the clinic on its rounds to see how their work is changing lives and restoring sight for Palestinians:
The team – comprising an outreach coordinator, three nurses and a specialized eye doctor – were visiting Sorrif, a community near Hebron in the South of the West Bank. The first person we met was fifteen-year-old Fawzi* who has trouble seeing the blackboard in school, even though he sits on the first row. He suffers from a congenital disease and has had two recent open-heart surgeries, with another planned in Jerusalem next month. At an eye test administered by a nurse from the St John’s Eye Hospital mobile clinic, it is clear that he has a very weak vision.
Fawzi said he also suffers from dizziness, and the clinic’s doctor suspected he has increased intracranial pressure. This may be an indicator of a more severe problem, so the doctor referred him to a neurologist to undergo an MRI scan in Alia hospital in Hebron. The doctor said it was urgent, and made the family promise to go for the scan on the same day.
At the same time Fawzi’s father was also examined, having developed a cataract following a severe road traffic accident nine years ago which left him using a cane to walk. Though the problem had been identified long ago, he didn’t have the resources to follow it up. Thanks to the eye clinic, he has finally has a referral for treatment, and therefore a hope of having his sight restored.
For our visit, the mobile clinic set up its equipment in the classrooms of a girls’ school. Around 50 patients received check-ups and, where needed, referrals for more examinations or treatment. Seventy girls from the school also underwent eye tests, and about 20 of them with reduced vision received a more thorough examination.
The day started with frustration for the team, however, after the doctor was held up at an Israeli military ‘flying checkpoint’ on the road outside his house in Hebron. “We often are delayed by checkpoints on the way to the remote villages. The soldiers do whatever they want, it depends on their mood,” said the doctor. Occasionally the impact of the occupation on their work is more serious: “Sometimes we see patients with an eye infection due to teargas or those injured in the eye by rubber bullets. However, they often go straight to the emergency if that happens.”
Aside from such traumatic injury, chronic health problems are a major cause of eye ill-health problems for Palestinians in the West Bank. Fifteen percent of Palestinian adults suffer from diabetes, which in turn puts sufferers at risk of eye problems like cataracts. Ideally, these patients should undergo a retina check every six months.
Access to treatment is a challenge for Palestinians in the West Bank, due in part to the geography of the occupation and prohibitive cost of treatment for poorer Palestinians. In Sorrif, a village of 20,000 inhabitants, they have many medical specialties available, but for eye care villagers are forced to travel. “Our village is about 45 minutes away from Hebron, where they have an eye doctor, but the Israelis often close the road,” said Mohamed Wmeid, the Mayor of Sorrif. The neighbouring village has a private eye clinic twice a week, but it is very expensive and often does not have enough time to see all the patients.
These problems often lead to people going without the care they need. The clinic’s outreach coordinator, Khaled, says that treatment of childhood cases of amblyopia, better known as ‘lazy eye’, are a classic example: “If we detect this early in children, the treatment is fairly simple and easy” said Khaled. “However, people from villages like these avoid going to the doctor as they are afraid of the medical costs. Twenty percent of the cases are due to neglect. The mobile clinic is more approachable.”
Sometimes we see patients with an eye infection due to teargas or those injured in the eye by rubber bullets
Mayor Wmeid announced the visit through social media and he asked shop owners to hang up flyers to inform people about the open clinic. “People in Sorrif are poor, and it would take a whole day for them to go to Hebron, get a test and return back. They often don’t have the funds for the transportation so they don’t go. This is why we are so grateful to have the eye clinic visiting and referring people who really need the follow up.”
Mr Wmeid was at the clinic to get his eyes checked himself, as he suffers from diabetes and has problems with his vision. “I needed a scan for my eyes two years ago but I was refused a medical permit to go to Jerusalem for it,” he said. “Eventually I made it to the hospital there during Ramadan when the Israelis were giving permits to people to pray in Al Aqsa.”
Later another group of girls arrived from a different school with referral papers from the Ministry of Health. “You can see the importance of our work as they are sending the students to us for a checkup” said Khaled. “Although the Ministry of Health is the duty bearer, they still come to us.”
*Name changed to protect identity
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