Gaza doctors face tough decisions as patients face long waits for diagnoses

Deir el-Balah, Gaza – At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital here in central Gaza, Bassem Hassan, director of the laboratory department, deals with medical tests whose results will determine the futures of his patients.Hassan’s team gives doctors the information they need to diagnose a range of illnesses, from kidney disease to diabetes, and without this crucial information, they will not know how to proceed with their cases.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Israel’s ambassador to the US says son injured in West Bank car-ramminglist 2 of 4‘My hands are empty’: Displaced Palestinians struggle to survivelist 3 of 4‘No role for UNRWA in Gaza’: Does the Board of Peace toe Israeli lines?list 4 of 4Mapping Israel’s 300 checkpoints: Where they are and how they workend of listBut Israel’s genocidal war and siege on Gaza has resulted in widespread damage to medical infrastructure and shortages of key materials needed to make diagnoses.There has been a suspension of all blood gas testing, which is particularly important for cardiac and intensive-care patients, and shortages of blood-collection tubes, which are essential for clinical chemistry tests.Automated clinical chemistry analysers, wh...