Hospitals in Lebanon looking ‘very similar’ to Gaza last year, says British-Palestinian doctor

The British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah travelled to Gaza a year ago with the charity Doctors Without Borders.

He returned 43 days later, when a shortage of medical supplies made his work impossible.

He’s now volunteering in Lebanon and joined us from Beirut.

Ciaran Jenkins: What are you seeing in hospitals there in Beirut? They’re at the centre of this story today.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Unfortunately, what we can see is very similar to what we saw in Gaza during October and November. More and more hospitals are being put out of service by being targeted by the Israelis. The Lebanese health system has lost eight hospitals so far and the wounded are similar to those we saw in Gaza. People who are crushed underneath the rubble, people who are injured in their homes. Around a third of the wounded are children. Blast injuries, crush injuries, shrapnel wounds. All in a system that was crumbling because the health system was under the same strain as the rest of the country as a result of the economic collapse. But now, as more and more hospitals are put out of service, less and less space for the wounded.

Ciaran Jenkins: Have you been working in hospitals there yourself?

Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Yes. So I cover two or three hospitals during the week. One of the hospitals that I cover is the Hariri Governmental Hospital, where the air raid happened last night. And this is a huge government hospital that is also extremely dilapidated. But as a result of the targeting of the hospitals in the Dahieh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, all of the wounded have had to be moved to this hospital. And because it has no plastic reconstructive surgeons, I have been asked to provide that kind of cover. We almost operate three, I provide three days full of operations per week. Just due to the sheer number of the wounded that exist in that hospital.

Ciaran Jenkins: Tell me about some of the people that you have treated.

Ghassan Abu-Sittah: So I’ve had children with really heartbreaking facial injuries,  shattered jaws. I’ve had a 14-year-old boy who almost lost his limb, needed vascular repair, and now needs reconstruction to that limb. A girl who unfortunately has shrapnel in the eyes and needs reconstructive surgery. Civilians pulled from underneath the rubble with crushed limbs, burns. I’ve had migrant workers who live in Lebanon who have been caught up in this war and have had severe burns. A gentleman from Sri Lanka, who I treated the other day, who was caught up in one of the air raids and has severe burns on his arms.

Ciaran Jenkins: Sorry to cut in there, but you say you’ve been working at Rafik Hariri, which of course nearby, was the scene of this attack yesterday. Israel says the operation of the hospital is not affected. What do you see?

Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Now it’s very difficult to get the medical teams to attend to the hospital, because the roads that get you to that hospital are now very dangerous. And so access to the hospital becomes very difficult. We saw this in Gaza, the first attacks on hospitals in Gaza where Israeli forces targeted the areas around hospitals, making the hospitals inaccessible. And then you have hospitals who get rubble from adjacent buildings that are targeted. And then eventually we see what happened in Al-Shifa where the hospital is turned into a mass grave.