Geographical Locations - Palestine

• (Statistical) Number of Inhabitants per Doctor:
• CIA World Factbook : West Bank and Gaza Strip

Organisations and Networks

UN and Multinational

• WHO
  - WHO EMRO Country Profile - Palestine
  - WHO - Tobacco control: country profile: West Bank and Gaza Strip
• WHO - Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) in Cairo
• WHO Health Action in Crises West Bank and The Gaza Strip
• UNDP Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People
• UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East

Government

• Ministry of Health
  - Health Education and Promotion Directorate
• PYALARA - The Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation - "established in 1999 especially for Palestinian youth, male and female, of all walks of life and regions"
• USAID West Bank / Gaza Strip

Non-Government

• Across Borders - In late 1998, a group of Palestinian professionals and refugee camp residents in the West Bank initiated a dialogue on the importance of bringing computer and internet technology into Palestinian refugee camps. Across Borders Project (ABP) was launched in February 1999, under the umbrella of Birzeit University (BZU), with the aims of (i) enhancing educational and vocational training opportunities for camp residents and (ii) building, otherwise nonexistent, internet linkages between Palestinian refugees spread around the world
• BADIL Resource Center for Palistinean Residency and Refugee Rights - BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian refugee issue through research, advocacy and support of community participation in the search for durable solutions. BADIL was established in January 1998 to support the development of a popular refugee lobby for the right of return through professional research and partnership-based community initiatives. The center is registered with the Palestinian Authority.
• CARE : Country Profile
• Gaza Community Mental Health Programme - "a Palestinian non-governmental institution, established in 1990 to serve the poulation of Gaza strip. GCMHP aims to offer comprehensive community-based mental health services. GCMHP's three centers in Gaza, Khan Younis, and Jabalaya extend their services to all sectors of society with emphasis on victims of domestic and political violence particularly women, children, and victims of human rights violations"
• Palestinian Counseling Center - "since its establishment in 1983 and through its team of multi-disciplinary counselors and experts, the PCC has served as a catalyst in promoting community-based development in addition to introducing the concept of mental health in Palestine. The main beneficiaries of the PCC's work have been the geographically, socially and economically marginalized groups, namely children and youth. However, the PCC implements the holistic approach in all its programs, where parents and school administrations as well as community members as a whole are beneficiaries."
• Palestine Red Crescent Society - "The Palestine Red Crescent is one of the largest and most reliable provider of health care and social services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is also the only provider of secondary health care services to the Palestinian refugees in the Diaspora (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq). Due to the financial crisis in oPt and serious lack of job opportunities for Palestinians in Lebanon, there are very few options for the Palestine Red Crescent to generate income from its programs and services. This leaves it vulnerable and dependent on external funding. With years of deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions, and with periods where the authorities could not provide health care and social services, the importance of the Palestine Red Crescent has increased."
• Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) - "Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) is a grassroots; community-based Palestinian health organization. PMRS was founded in 1979 by a group of Palestinian doctors and health professionals seeking to supplement the decayed and inadequate health infrastructure caused by years of Israeli military occupation. It is non-profit, voluntary, and one of the largest health NGOs in Palestine. PMRS is national health programs emphasize prevention, education, community participation, and the empowerment of people."
• Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - This FMO Research Guide provides an overview of displacement within, and from, the region of the state of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories during and since the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. It also provides historical background to the current situation, an overview of the legal status of the Palestinians and the Occupation, and looks at institutional responses to their needs.
• Welfare Association - "a private, non-profit foundation established in 1983 in Geneva to support Palestinian society in sustainable development. Officially registered under the name Welfare Association, it has become better known in the region by its Arabic name, Ta'awoun, meaning cooperation."

Academic Institutions

• Birzeit University's Department of Community and Public Health

National Policy and Related Documents

Reports, Guidelines, and Projects

• Effects of armed conflict on access to emergency health care in Palestinian West Bank: systematic collection of data in emergency departments
  Objective: To assess the impact of restrictions in access to hospital services imposed on the civilian population during the armed conflict in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. Design: Consecutive registration of demographic and medical data, with information about transportation time, delay in access to hospital, and course of hospital contact. Setting: Three hospital emergency departments in Bethlehem and Nablus, in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, during one week in each hospital. Participants: All patients seeking health care in the three hospitals during the study period. Results: A total of 394 of the 2228 emergency department contacts reported being delayed at checkpoints or by detours on their way to the emergency department. Hospital admission was significantly more common for these patients: 32% (n = 125) compared with 13% (n = 205) among those who were not delayed. Conclusion: 18% of the emergency department contacts were delayed because of the occupation. The higher hospital admission rate in this group suggests that restrictions in access to hospital services influence the severity of the medical conditions presented. [author abstract] [BMJ, Volume 332, 13 May 2006, pp.1122-1124]
• Health-related quality of life in diabetic patients and controls without diabetes in refugee camps in the Gaza strip: a cross-sectional study
  Background: Prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing in developed and developing countries. Diabetes is known to strongly affect the health-related quality of life (HRQOL). HRQOL is also influenced by living conditions. We analysed the effects of having diabetes on HRQOL under the living conditions in refugee camps in the Gaza strip. Methods: We studied a sample of 197 diabetic patients who were recruited from three refugee camps in the Gaza strip and 197 age- and sex-matched controls living in the same camps. To assess HRQOL, we used the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) including four domains (physical health, psychological, social relations and environment). Domain scores were compared for cases (diabetic patients) and controls (persons without diabetes) and the impact of socio-economic factors was evaluated in both groups. Results: All domains were strongly reduced in diabetic patients as compared to controls, with stronger effects in physical health (36.7 vs. 75.9 points of the 0–100 score) and psychological domains (34.8 vs. 70.0) and weaker effects in social relationships (52.4 vs. 71.4) and environment domains (23.4 vs. 36.2). The impact of diabetes on HRQOL was especially severe among females and older subjects (above 50 years). Low socioeconomic status had a strong negative impact on HRQOL in the younger age group (<50 years). Conclusion: HRQOL is strongly reduced in diabetic patients living in refugee camps in the Gaza strip. Women and older patients are especially affected. [author abstract] [BMC Public Health 2006, 6: 268]
• Organizing health care within political turmoil: the Palestinian case
  Palestinians were given control over their own health services in late 1994. Since then they have been facing the challenge of reorganizing disordered health services into a cohesive, regulated and sustainable health care system. This paper focuses on the experience of organizing health care during political instability. It considers the ways that health care is currently provided and funded in the Palestinian Territories. The patterns of accessibility to health care services in terms of insurance coverage and provision (physical allocation) of services are discussed. Finally, the major health care policy changes in this transitional period are examined. [author summary] [International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2003; 18: 63–87]
• Palestinian Displacement: a case apart?
  This September 2006 issue of Forced Migration Review includes a major feature on Palestinian displacement. Twenty-eight articles by UN, Palestinian and international human rights organisations, Palestinian scholars in the diaspora and Jewish and Israeli activist groups examine the root causes of the displacement of Palestinians, the consequences of the failure to apply international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Palestinian entitlement to protection and compensation.
• Palestinian Health System after Three Years of the Intifada – Survival, Development, or Both?
  "In 1994, following the signing of the Oslo Accords and establishing the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians had inherited a weak and fragmented health system that was controlled by the Israeli occupation authorities. The system, made of four almost competing/duplicating providers (government, nongovernmental organization [NGO], United Nations, and private) needed immediate rehabilitation and urgent inputs in several areas…". [Ethnicity & Disease, Volume 15, Winter 2005 pp.S1-84 – S1-85]
• Palestine Human Development Report 2004
• State of Emergency Health in the Palestinian Territories
  The Palestinian emergency healthcare system faces numerous difficulties in its efforts to develop and improve patient care. The Emergency Medical Assistance Project, a four-year, emergency health capacity-building project, is described in this report. The factors contributing to the current lack of in-hospital emergency care and the measures performed to improve the situation are highlighted. The authors surveyed 48 emergency healthcare providers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on key emergency care development indicators and compared the level of emergency health development with those of Israel and the United States using a model of structured development criteria. Survey results and project observations provide a basis for future recommendations in education and infrastructure. [author abstract] [Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 22(1): 9–14, January–February 2007]
• Strengthening the Palestinian Health System
  "This study examines strategies for strengthening the health system of a potential independent Palestinian state. Successful development of the Palestinian health system is worthwhile in its own right, and it may be a relatively cost-effective way to help demonstrate the tangible benefits of independence and peaceful relations with neighboring countries. Moreover, implementation of many of the strategies described here can begin prior to independence." [Rand Corporation, 2005]
• The Prevalence of Psychological Morbidity in West Bank Palestinian Children
  Objective: To determine the prevalence of psychological morbidity among Palestinian children living in the southern Bethlehem District of the West Bank during July 2000. Methods: We undertook a descriptive study using the Rutter A2 (parent) Scale to determine psychological morbidity. This questionnaire comprises 31 questions that were answered by a parent of the 206 subject children (ages 6 to 13 years). We selected subjects based on a multistage, randomized selection of 8 Palestinian villages and their households in the southern region of Bethlehem, West Bank. We used the Gaza Socioeconomic Adversities Questionnaire to determine differences in economic status among families. Results: For all families interviewed, the father was employed, none were receiving financial assistance, and all but 1 owned their own house. The results of the Rutter A2 Scale revealed a rate of psychological morbidity (“caseness”) of 42.3% among Palestinian children. The rate for boys was 46.3% and for girls, 37.8%. Conclusions: The prevalence of psychological morbidity among Palestinian children in the West Bank was significantly higher (factor of 2; χ² = 23.26, df 1, P < 0.001), relative to the level of psychological morbidity determined independently for children in Gaza during 2000. We predict that these rates will have increased substantially owing to the escalated violence that began in this region 2 months after we conducted our study. We further predict that children in Israeli settlements in the West Bank will also exhibit elevated levels of psychological morbidity, relative to their counterparts in Israel. [author abstract] [Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 2004; 49: 60–63]

Educational Resources

• ArabNet: Palestine
• Bridges
  The goal of Bridges, the Israeli-Palestinian Public Health magazine is to promote the exchange of public health information of common interest between the Palestinian and Israeli public health professionals. Each issue of Bridges is guided by principles such as the importance of showing both the adverse impact of the conflict on both sides and the positive cooperative efforts that are taking place; a focus not only on scientific, health issues but also on issues of dialogue/peace, human rights, and the socio-economic determinants of health. resources
• CDC - Travel Information: Middle East
• Palestinian Refugee ResearchNet
• United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine