A British medic in Gaza spoke of the dire reality facing patients at UK-backed field hospitals as a major report found a quarter of Palestinians in the enclave are experiencing famine, with the number set to rise.
Mandy Blackman, the nurse-in-charge at UK-Med's Al Mawasi field hospital in southern Gaza, told the Daily Mail on Friday that hospitals are experiencing shortages of 'so many' drugs, with 'much of our equipment' stuck on the border 'waiting to come in' as food shortages pose an existential threat to the local population.
Patients can be given one meal a day at Gazan hospitals under strain, but will inevitably be discharged into uncertain environments, which complicate healing and exacerbate existing conditions, she explained.
Ms Blackman, who usually works at Kettering General Hospital in Northamptonshire, said: 'I have been a nurse for 25 years and I have seen more mass casualty here than I have seen in a lifetime in the UK.'
UK-Med, a British charity supported in part by the Foreign Office, has sent medical workers, including NHS-trained staff, to Gaza to help perform thousands of life-saving treatments since the conflict broke out.
