East Jerusalem: Access to Emergency Care

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Sheehan]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of back to back transfers between ambulances at checkpoints on the health of Palestinians seeking to access emergency care in East Jerusalem hospitals.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Lord Bates) (Con)]

My Lords, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported in 2015 that 84% of transfers from West Bank to East Jerusalem hospitals underwent back-to-back transfers. The UK has consistently called on the Israeli Government to ease restrictions that reduce access to medical care for Palestinians.

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

I thank the Minister for his reply. A number of noble Lords have asked me about back-to-back ambulance transfers. Basically, when somebody in the West Bank is critically ill—it is an emergency case—there are no tertiary hospitals in the West Bank and the referral is made to one in East Jerusalem, which is on the other side of the barrier. So the person will get into an ambulance in the West Bank but then be made to get out at the checkpoint and either be wheeled or have to walk through, regardless of whether he is having a heart attack or she is in a difficult labour. They will then have, on average, a 27-minute wait at the checkpoint, before transferring to an ambulance on the Israeli side to be taken, finally, to the hospital. This is an enormous barrier to the coexistence funding programme that DfID has announced to ensure better outcomes for Palestinians needing emergency care. Will the Minister confirm that he will make the strongest possible representations to his counterparts?

[Lord Bates]

We will certainly continue to make our representations. More importantly, we fund the UN Access Coordination Unit, which helps in this area. We agree that the waiting times are unacceptable. Of course, the long-term solution lies in the resumption of peace talks.