WHO Right to Health Advocacy project
The right to the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental human right encompassing all elements of life necessary to enjoy good health. It incorporates accessible, available, acceptable and high quality health services as well as meeting needs such as access to adequate food, clean water and housing that are considered underlying determinants of health.
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Monthly oPt referral access reports
Right to Health photo book: Palestinian voices
WHO video-graphic: the journey of a referral patient from Gaza
Right to health: Crossing barriers to access health in the occupied Palestinian territory 2017 English
Noncommunicable diseases
WHO provides support to the Ministry in targeting preventive interventions and awareness campaigns for key risk factors for noncommunicable diseases: tobacco control, healthy diet, salt reduction, and physical exercise. For secondary prevention of NCDs, WHO and the Ministry of Health launched an early detection and screening programme in the West Bank. WHO supports the Ministry to build and expand the capacity of health professionals for behavioural change communication.
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Mental health
WHO is leading the Building Palestinian resilience: Improving psychosocial and mental health responses to emergency situations project. The project succeeded in integrating mental health services into primary health care facilities at UNRWA and the Ministry of Health clinics in Gaza and the West Bank through the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), and trained almost 600 general practitioners and nurses. In addition, WHO supported the development of mental health emergency response plan for Gaza and trained emergency mental health teams and provided supplies to cover 90% of the Ministry of Health essential list of psychotropic drugs.
WHO also provides support to the development of the Day Care Centre in Gaza Psychiatric Hospital, the Bethlehem psychiatric hospital rehabilitation program, the School Mental Health Programme and counsellors in Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Early Essential Newborn Care
The overburdened hospitals in Gaza are struggling to provide quality care for newborns and to cope with deteriorating health determinants. WHO and partners (UNICEF, UNFPA, UNRWA, MAP-UK and others) within the framework of the “Every Newborn Action Plan” are promoting and supporting Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC), a package of evidence-based life-saving interventions during delivery and the early newborn period. Adoption of these interventions and elimination of potentially harmful practices can effectively reduce the risk of infection and sepsis, asphyxia and complications for an estimated 45 000 newborn boys and girls in Gaza, including for preterm and low-birth-weight babies.
Palestinian National Institute of Public Health
The Institute produces evidence for informed health policy decisions and aims to strengthen data collection, and the utilization of evidence and best practice by the Ministry of Health and health policy-makers, including through the establishment of e-registries for cause of death, cancer, maternal and child health, road traffic collisions and mammography screening.
The Institute has also developed geographic information systems for health care and health outcomes mapping, and national human resources for health observatory.
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International Health Regulations (IHR)
One of the priorities within the WHO Health Emergencies Programme is to support the upgrading of the Public Health Laboratory in Ramallah to meet biosafety level 3 requirements to enable the system to expand its diagnostic capacity.
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WHO Emergency Programme
WHO works closely with the Ministry of Health and Health Cluster partners to strengthen preparedness capacity of the Palestinian health system and its ability to respond to all hazards of public health significance, such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters, etc.
In 2018, the Gaza Strip witnessed a significant increase in Palestinian casualties in the context of the Great March of Return demonstrations. This has led to a wave of trauma casualties putting extra strain on an already overburdened health system. The increased numbers of injured and traumatized patients have exacerbated the chronic shortages of medical supplies, with Gaza’s Central Drug Store experiencing the most severe shortages in essential medicines since 2014. Due to the chronic electricity supply crisis, Gaza’s health facilities rely on donated fuel to run emergency generators during black-outs; otherwise, public hospitals would have to significantly reduce essential services and intensive care units, operating theatres and other critical units.
To respond to the mass influx of trauma patients in Gaza, WHO works with the Ministry of Health to enhance the trauma management system by upgrading key elements of the pathway. The Ministry of Health and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, with support from WHO, established 10 trauma stabilization points (TSPs) throughout critical zones in Gaza. TSPs helped to reduce the overload of hospitals substantially. Moving forward, WHO is now bridging the emergency response with health systems development through proactive trauma preparedness and strengthening of the whole trauma management system.
WHO and Health/Nutrition Cluster partners support the Ministry of Health to ensure the provision of lifesaving essential health care and preparedness, focused on mobilizing and prepositioning of essential medicines and supplies; provision of alternative energy sources, including solar electrification of the health sector in Gaza; and strengthening the trauma pathway – from injury to rehabilitation and recovery.
As the UN specialized agency for health, WHO co-leads the Health Cluster in the occupied Palestinian territory with the Ministry of Health. WHO works with the Ministry and health partners in identifying the health needs of affected populations and in coordinating the response of humanitarian health partners.
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Health cluster
Health system strengthening towards universal health coverage
WHO has consistently supported health system strengthening through leadership and governance, health information systems, health financing, human resources for health, essential medical products and technologies, and service delivery.
WHO works with the Ministry of Health to enhance national health information systems and ensure people have access to quality health care services by integrating the family practice approach in primary health care (PHC). Currently, the family practice approach covers 3 districts and about 40 clinics. Strengthening the Palestinian health system is key to achieving universal health coverage.
Learn more about universal health coverage.