An Irish humanitarian organisation is seeking to aid those suffering in Gaza by providing a mobile surgical unit to assist in the delivery of life-saving medical care.
The mobile operating theatre — contained in a shipping container and known officially as a ‘hospitainer’ — will be capable of facilitating up to 10 surgeries a day.
Surgical care in Gaza has reached crisis point due to the relentless bombing of hospitals and medical facilities since the beginning of the conflict in the wake of the attack by Hamas on Israeli settlements on October 7.
The 20ft mobile surgical theatre will facilitate urgent medical surgeries including limb reconstruction, amputations, skin grafts, and other operations necessitated due to injuries caused by explosives and shelling, according to aid organisation One4Humanity.
It will be delivered to a field hospital in central Gaza run by international humanitarian group, the International Medical Corps.
The group, which was founded in response to the war in Ukraine by former Munster rugby player Shane Leahy together with risk management consultant Norman Sheehan, has been working for two years in the logistical field of bringing medical aid into warzones.
To date, it has shipped 16 hospitainers across Ukraine to the frontline of the conflict there.
“This is what Ireland can provide in terms of humanitarian assistance,” Mr Leahy said.
“In Ukraine, we started with one hospital unit, and there are now 16 operating in Ukraine which can be shifted around. Operating theatres are in very short supply in Gaza,” he said.
He noted that hospital capacity in Gaza is now about 50% what it was before the war, with an additional 90,000 wartime injuries, which has stretched the region’s already sparse medical infrastructure to breaking point.
There are currently only about 1,500 hospital beds in Gaza to serve the needs of more than 2m people.
“If you’ve half the capacity and many, multiple times the injuries, you have suffering on an immense level,” Mr Leahy said.
The hospitainers in question are valued at about €250,000 apiece and come equipped with a surgical unit, a scrub room, and a recovery room.
One4Humanity said the purchase of the Gazan hospitainer will be funded by private donations from Ireland’s business community.
The International Medical Corps field hospital, which currently has upwards of 250 beds and four operating theatres, has been set up at Deir Al Balah in the centre of the strip.
Ross Kelly, an Irish entrepreneur and investor coordinating One4Humanity’s effort in Gaza, said the logistics of getting equipment into Gaza are “nearly impossible”, but that the group with the best capability of doing so is the International Medical Corps.
“If we can scale it the way Shane has envisaged, and bring in 10 hospital units, then it could be 100 surgeries a day and that would have a major impact,” Mr Kelly said.
To date, close to 40,000 people have died in the conflict in Gaza, with roughly 5% of the population estimated to be carrying injuries sustained in the war.
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