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One Year On: UK-Med calls for the protection of health workers in Gaza

One year on: with no end in sight to the conflict in Gaza and Israel, UK-Med thanks brave NHS medics for staffing its field hospitals and calls for the protection of health workers risking their safety for others 

As the armed violence in Gaza and Israel enters a second year, British medical aid charity UK-Med has called for the protection of health workers in Gaza and the region and thanks its brave NHS medics as well as other international staff and local medics who have so far treated more than 200,000 people at its two field hospitals inside the Gaza Strip.  

CEO of UK-Med David Wightwick CMG who spent six months in Gaza establishing the field hospitals that now employ 570 local staff said, “This is the largest, most intensive, and most demanding humanitarian deployment in the 30-year history of UK-Med. I am immensely proud of all the NHS and international staff who volunteered for this hazardous assignment, as well as the local medics working tirelessly in Gaza with us. Together they have helped us treat more than 200,000 people since January.” 

Mr Wightwick reiterated the need to protect and respect healthcare facilities and workers in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. 

“It is absolutely imperative that all actors respect and protect the rights of healthcare workers and the facilities in which they work.”

The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen; more than 41,000 people have been killed and 90% of the population displaced since Israeli Armed Forces launched their military operation into Gaza following the attack on 7 October that claimed more than 1,100 lives in Israel. 

One of the largest health providers in Gaza, UK-Med employs more than 570 local Palestinian staff and has rotated nearly 30 NHS medics through Gaza, among them emergency doctors, nurses, midwives, surgeons, and GPs. 

NHS Anaesthetist from Lancashire, Dr Matthew Newport, who has deployed four times with UK-Med, said:

“I’ve seen more violent death in Gaza in the last few months than I have in the last ten years in the NHS. But despite the volume of work, we are making an impact, saving lives and relieving some of the relentless suffering.”

The UK-Med field hospital in Al Mawasi, and our primary health care facility in Deir El Balah, which are both partly staffed by NHS and international medics, both lie only several hundred metres from the edge of the humanitarian zone designated by Israeli Armed Forces. Our field hospital in Mawasi has a 24-hour operating theatre and emergency department, maternity unit, and primary healthcare clinic and is a lifeline for people in the area.  

Paula Tobin, an NHS nurse from Plymouth who led the field hospital in Al Mawasi, explained: 

“Having deployed twice to Gaza, I can’t believe it’s gone on as long as it has. People there are exhausted. From one day to the next, they wonder am I going to be alive? How do you plan for a future if you don’t know you’ve got one?”

It costs £9,000 to deploy an NHS emergency doctor to Gaza for six weeks. To support its work in Gaza, UK-Med is calling for donations from the public via its Gaza Health Crisis Appeal, which has so far raised more than £180,000To donate, visit: https://www.uk-med.org/gaza-crisis-appeal/  

The following are available for interview (stills, b-rolls are available for all): 

  • Dr Matthew Newport, NHS Anaesthetist, who is currently in Gaza. Dr Newport, from Ramsbottom in Greater Manchester, has deployed four times to Gaza with UK-Med. 
  • Dr Clare Frost, NHS General Practitioner, who is currently in Gaza. Dr Frost, from Cardigan in Wales, leads the UK-Med field hospital in Deir el Balah. 
  • Dr Hareen de Silva, General Practitioner (formerly NHS), who led the UK-Med field hospital in Deir el Balah and who returned to the UK in September. Dr de Silva, from Ilford, London, spent six weeks in Gaza.  
  • Paula Tobin, NHS Senior Nurse, who us currently in Gaza. Paula is from Plymouth in Devon and has deployed twice to Gaza with UK-Med. She now leads the UK-Med surgical field hospital in Al Mawasi. 
  • Dr Andrew Kent, NHS trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, who was part of UK-Med’s surgical team that worked at Al Aqsa Hospital. After four weeks in Gaza, Dr Kent returned to his hometown of Inverness, Scotland, in February. 

For interviews with medics, both those currently deployed in Gaza and those who have returned, contact UK-Med’s media team at media@uk-med.org. 

About UK-Med

Born of the NHS, for nearly 30-years UK-Med has been saving lives in emergencies. 

UK-Med is the only UK non-governmental organisation to be verified as an Emergency Medical Team (EMT) by the World Health Organization. With a roster of more than 1,000 NHS and international medics, UK-Med draws on NHS staff from trusts across the UK to support its emergency responses. 

UK-Med’s roster of on-call humanitarians comprises NHS clinicians, international medics and humanitarian aid professionals with expertise in logistics, security, and WASH. Its teams are ready to respond to global health crises at a moment’s notice, 24/7, 365 days a year. 

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) helps fund UK-Med’s humanitarian response in Gaza, including its two field hospitals. 

UK-Med also has an ongoing response in Ukraine (more than 220 medics deployed), and has previously responded to the Türkiye/Syria earthquake (62 medics deployed), Libya floods, and Malawi cholera/cyclone (31 medics deployed).  

The number of clinicians deployed at any one time from the NHS is very small, representing a small proportion of the total NHS workforce.  Clinicians joining a UK-Med response either take annual leave or study leave, to ensurethat NHS service delivery is not interrupted. In some circumstances, funders such as FCDO will pay for their regular roles to be backfilled to ensure there is no additional pressure on the NHS.