Interview with Sieglinde Weinbrenner, LWF-Representative in Jerusalem
(LWI) - Three months after the beginning of the Gaza War, the situation is “devastating,” says Sieglinde Weinbrenner, LWF Country Representative in Jerusalem. Cancer patients have been unable to access life-saving treatment at The Lutheran World Federation’s (LWF) Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem. The war continues to hinder patients and staff from Gaza and the West Bank from accessing the hospital.
Treatments missed and canceled
“Here in Jerusalem the situation is calm but very tense,” Weinbrenner says. The Old City is void of tourists and pilgrims which normally frequent the streets at this time of the year. The situation is different in the West Bank, where there is increased violence. "We have been unable to operate the community outreach programs, most notably the mobile mammography clinic and the diabetes mobile clinic, in marginalized areas in the West Bank since the start of the war”.
Because of the increased violence in the West Bank, LWF has been using buses to bring essential staff to the hospital, but they are often severely delayed at checkpoints. About 30% of the patients from the West Bank have not been able to come for their chemotherapy, radiation, or hemodialysis appointments. “Hundreds of treatment sessions for patients from the West Bank been canceled in the last three months”, Weinbrenner says. “Because of the checkpoints, commutes that used to take 30 minutes now take more than two hours.”
The hospital continues to accommodate and support the patients from Gaza who came to AVH before the war, but the hospital staff are very worried about the patients currently in Gaza. They have been unable to contact many of them. “We do not know if they are still alive,” says Weinbrenner.
“For weeks, we have been trying to get 28 children with cancer on the evacuation list,” Weinbrenner adds. This has so far been impossible and AVH has not been able to bring life-saving medication to its patients in Gaza.
