Dr Fadi Atrash, CEO of the AVH (left), leads representatives of the municipality and staff around the new clinic. Photo: AVH
Oncology and other specialized treatments for people in the West Bank
(LWI) - Quality healthcare for Palestinians in the West Bank: The Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) has opened a clinic in Ramallah, to better facilitate the treatment of cancer and kidney patients in the West Bank. AVH specializes in oncology and kidney disease. Checkpoints and travel restrictions in the past have made it increasingly difficult for patients outside Jerusalem to access life-saving treatment.
Ensure quality treatment
The aim of the clinic is to facilitate access for all patients to consult doctors and health experts from AVH in Ramallah, explains Sieglinde Weinbrenner, LWF Country Representative in Jerusalem. The clinic facilitates consultations and check-ups and allows patients to discuss treatment plans, Weinbrenner adds. “For treatment patients would still need to come to AVH in East Jerusalem.”
Seats wait to accommodate patients during simple treatments and diagnostic. Photo: AVH
The new clinic will facilitate our patient's treatment journey and ensure its continuity even during the country’s most challenging times
Dr. Fadi ATRASH, CEO Augusta Victoria Hospital, East Jerusalem
“The new clinic will facilitate our patient's treatment journey and ensure its continuity even during the country’s most challenging times,” adds Dr Fadi Atrash, CEO of the AVH.” Patients have the right to access treatment and care, and to speak with their doctors, face to face.”
"Compassion and love”
Every year the AVH treats about 7,100 cancer and kidney patients from the West Bank and from Gaza. While it has always been a complicated process for them to obtain a permit to be treated in Jerusalem due to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict it has become especially challenging since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. Checkpoints in the West Bank have become more difficult to navigate, additional borders have been set up, and settler violence has made it increasingly dangerous for patients and AVH staff to reach the hospital on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. Patients from Gaza have been unable to access the hospital since the beginning of the war.
“Today, Jerusalem has come closer to us with its compassion and love, offering healthcare and medical treatment to its people who, due to the occupation, have struggled to access it,” said Issa Kassis, the Mayor of Ramallah. “This will to a degree spare patients the hardship of crossing checkpoints and dealing with travel restrictions.”
