PMI Opens Door-to-door Health Service to Gaza Refugees

Rafah – The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) is cooperating with a medical aid agency in Gaza to open door-to-door health services, visiting one tent after another, with a target of providing services to 1,000 refugees. 

"After the target is achieved, PMI will continue the health services and reach out to several other emergency shelters," the head of the PMI Humanity Team for Gaza, Arifin Muh Hadi, said in an official PMI statement on Sunday, as quoted from Antara site.

Hadi, who is currently in the Rafah border area, said that the PMI is providing door-to-door services to make it easier for evacuees to access health services.

Moreover, many evacuees are unable to move to visit emergency health service facilities.

Entering its 128th day, Israel's attack on Gaza, Palestine, has resulted in the total destruction of a number of infrastructures in the Gaza area, including a number of hospitals.

The UNRWA, in its report, stated that health services' function and access have been disrupted due to the limited access to electricity and water. Currently, there are only four out of 22 UNRWA health centers that are still operating.

The PMI's effort to provide door-to-door services, according to Hadi, is very effective as the number of patients is surging amid the limited health facilities.

Ridwan Sobri Carman as Head of Disaster Management at PMI stated that in providing health services, PMI's volunteers are spread into two teams.

"Each team is supported by one doctor and two nurses. The two teams continue to try to provide services at several shelters in Rafah, Gaza, and Khan Younis," Carman informed.

The PMI's door-to-door mobile health clinics align with WHO's call for increased immunization coverage and the provision of non-communicable disease medicines, psychotropic drugs, and anesthetics to meet people's needs.