Report: Separation fence making patients, hospitals suffer

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The section of the West Bank separation fence surrounding Jerusalem seriously impinges on the accessibility and quality of medical services received by tens of thousands of Palestinian East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza residents, according to a report released Wednesday by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

The report contends the fence has produced financial losses for nine East Jerusalem hospitals that provide relatively high-quality medical care for Palestinian residents in the territories, as well as Israeli residents in East Jerusalem.

"Since the roadblocks were set up at the entrances to Jerusalem at the end of 2000, and more acutely, since the construction of the separation wall in the north and south, the number of sick people who manage to get to the hospitals in the city has greatly decreased, and many patients, especially those from the villages around Jerusalem, who had frequently entered Jerusalem to receive medical services - mostly for visits to medical specialists and complicated medical procedures- have now been compelled to search for medical services in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho and Nablus," the report said.

Following the fence's construction, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have experienced significant delays in obtaining immediate treatment for the seriously ill, among them the elderly and diabetes and kidney dialysis patients. According to the report, there are many patients who have required urgent transfer to hospitals in East Jerusalem but whose transfer was delayed- even under emergency circumstances.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/658030.html