Coronavirus: Bethlehem’s Holy
Family Hospital at risk
 |
| Hospital of the Holy Family in Bethlehem |
The Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem is a specialized
maternity and neonatal critical care center struggling to provide life-saving
care to vulnerable families in the Holy Land as isolation and economic downfall
impacts its capacity.
By Linda Bordoni
The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to spread,
affecting communities, villages, towns and cities across the world.
It has found its way into the Holy Land and into Jesus’
birthplace, Bethlehem, resulting in total shutdown and geographic isolation for
the city and surrounding region since 5 March.
The impact of the isolation is far-reaching and particularly
risky for the most vulnerable, like those who receive life-saving care at
Bethlehem’s Holy Family Hospital.
In 1989, at the request of Saint John Paul II, the Order of
Malta took over the operation and management of the Hospital, converting it
into a state-of-the-art maternity and neonatal critical care centre that serves
women, infants, and children, throughout the Holy Land.
At the heart of its mission are the values of the Catholic
Church. Regardless of religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay, no one is ever
turned away. The Hospital stands as a beacon of hope for poor and at-risk
families in the Bethlehem region, nearby desert villages, and refugee
camps.
The President of the Foundation that supports the Hospital
is the Sovereign Order of Malta’s Ambassador to Palestine, Michele Burke Bowe.
She spoke to Vatican Radio about how the current emergency risks undermining
the work of the Hospital, putting the life of babies and their mothers at risk.
Ambassador Bowe explains that the Palestinian Healthcare
System is under huge duress and that the Hospital is suffering both because it
is isolated within the walled city and because the increasingly impoverished
people it serves are increasingly unable to support it.
“At Holy Family Hospital we deliver babies, about 4,800 a
year; we have a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that can care for babies as small
as 500 grams – or 1 pound - and we are the only hospital in the region that can
care for, and save babies, born before 32 weeks,” she
says.
It is the only critical care unit and the only Hospital
equipped for high-risk pregnancies in the area, says Ambassador Bowe, noting it
is a very important part of the fabric of the Palestinian Healthcare System.
She explains how the Hospital only employs Palestinian
medical professionals and that it is a Catholic teaching hospital. Its mission
is also to reach beyond the walls of Bethlehem with a Mobile Medical Unit that
serves isolated villages and Bedouin communities.
A life-line for the entire region
The Ambassador expresses concern for the fact that, due to
the current measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, patients are not able
to come from the south because “not only is Bethlehem cut off, but each
neighbourhood is cut off from the next.”
She says the Palestinian Minister of Health, an obstetrician
and gynaecologist, is working hard to make sure there is humanitarian access.
Humanitarian crisis of an enormous scale
Ambassador Bowe elaborates on how the impact of the current
situation on communities, that are already impoverished, has far-reaching
consequences.
“I'm estimating that maybe only 10% of the people are able
to receive salaries. Everything is closed like in much of the world, but it's
just a little more dire when everything is closed in a country under
occupation, where prices are rising and they are already high because the
Palestinian economy uses the Israeli shekel,” she says.
Impact of economic crisis on the Hospital
The Ambassador explains that, normally at Holy Family
Hospital, patients are asked to pay, if they can, 50% of the actual cost of
services, while the Foundation, along with other associations of the Order of
Malta and generous donors from around the world, cover the rest of the costs.
“So if patients are poor, they have a sliding scale that
goes down to zero. But what we're seeing is maybe only 30% of the patients are
contributing anything at all, and that's going to have dire consequences on our
hospital… being able to pay people, buy supplies and keep the lights on,” she says.
Coronavirus infections in the Holy Land
Ambassador Bowe says that on 18 March there were some
reported cases of coronavirus infection. As elsewhere, she says, the Ministry
of Health has tests kits from the WHO and people are being quarantined according
to the guidelines.
“So far, I've not heard of any cases in Gaza and we're
really praying for Gaza because they live in such tight borders. The refugee
camps there are really packed and they just don't have the infrastructure to
take care of it,” she says, noting that also in Bethlehem there are three
refugee camps “where people live in very, very tight quarters where a spread of
the virus would just be untenable.”
Relations between Israel and Palestine
As diplomats, the Ambassador says, “we’ve been using some
back door channels,” to try and counter difficulties caused by the complicated
relations between Israel and Palestine.
“And I know that the health authorities in Palestine are
working also with the Israeli health authorities to see what can be done,” she
says.
And speaking about her specific concern, she says it’s an
extremely serious humanitarian crisis, also because the Holy Family Hospital is
a level three NICU “which means we can do all sorts of really technical medical
services for the sick and premature babies, but we don't do surgeries, we’re
not a surgical hospital and right now we don't have the ability to transfer a
baby to Jerusalem for surgery.”
Hopefully, she continues, something will be worked out
through governmental channels, “but the reality with these fragile new-borns is
that when they need surgery (cardiac or brain surgery), they generally need it
the same day,” and that could prove very difficult.
“So we're just praying that the cases won't be so
complicated,” she says.
Looking ahead to a potential collapse of the Hospital’s
budget due to economic hardship in the region, Ambassador Bowe appeals to
people, “who are also in difficult economic situations at this time, to reach
into their pockets, to help keep this Hospital afloat,” a hospital, she says,
“that is only 1,500 steps from the manger where Jesus was born.”
Prayers for the Holy Land
The Ambassador also asks for special prayers for the Holy
Land: “It's such a blessed place, but it's such a difficult place to live and
particularly now, pray for our hospital, for the doctors, nurses, and
midwives". She invites people to contact the Order of Malta or the
Hospital website for
donations for the hospital.
“Because,” Ambassador Bowe concludes: “It would greatly help
the mothers and babies of Bethlehem.”
he Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a lay religious
order of the Catholic Church since 1113. A subject of international law,
the Order, with its seat in Rome, has diplomatic relations with over 100 states
and the European Union and has permanent observer status at the United
Nations. The Order of Malta is active in 120 countries caring for people
in need through its medical, social and humanitarian works.
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