MAP caught up with Dr. Naveen Cavale, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon from King’s College Hospital in London, who has just returned from his second trip to Gaza as part of the MAP-Ideals team supported by Dfid.
How was your latest mission?
It was a productive trip. We’re chipping away at things but there is still a long way to go with a large backlog of injuries. It was good to see life in Gaza returning to some normality. Kids are playing, markets are open and it seems that the place is slowly coming back to life.
What did the mission focus on?
We’re still within the emergency phase and looking to deal with urgent cases in terms of those injured during the conflict. One huge issue is the part-managed injuries, the people who were sent home during the conflict (if they had a home left to return to), to make room in the hospital. We need to find these people and ensure that they are on the right course of recovery.
What aid did you take in with you?
We took in orthopaedic and plastics kit with us. Gaza’s A&E resources are limited and run down after years of blockade. In terms of plastic surgery there are four really good consultants and a reasonably well equipped burns unit.
What are some of the challenges facing the health sector in Gaza?
Gaza’s hospital systems work like ones in the UK did some twenty years ago. There is a lot of work going on to improve these systems and ensure that there is joint working between orthopaedics and plastics, which is vital in complex trauma management. We’re looking to develop a trauma team for the A&E at Shifa Hospital (Gaza’s main hospital) which hopefully will mean a significant reduction in mortality rates if there is a renewed conflict in future.
What was the atmosphere like in Gaza?
The blockade is still in place and there is a feeling that it is inevitable that violence will break out in future. I spoke to one Palestinian medic who told me that he’d “gladly trade having Ebola in Gaza for ending the blockade”.
I think winter will be a real problem. It rained heavily went I was there and I don’t know how they are going to get through that – especially those living under tarpaulin. The streets were flooding. It is crucially important to stay warm and dry. The cold will likely mean more chest infections and real problems with the vulnerable young and elderly people of Gaza.
What next?
I plan to be back again in November, and again in the new year, possibly with a trauma surgeon and a neurosurgeon joining the team.
