<\/p>\n
30 January 2025<\/p>\n
A<\/span>\u00a0new\u00a0report\u00a0on UNRWA\u2019s health services<\/a><\/em>\u00a0has underscored how highly they are rated by the Palestine Refugees that use them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Providing\u00a0<\/span>free healthcare is at the heart of the mandate given to UNRWA by the UN General Assembly, and the Agency commissioned an independent organisation, CRSM Consulting, to take stock of its performance and areas for improvement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Th<\/span>e comprehensive survey\u202ftook place from July 2023\u202fto September 2024\u202fand\u202fcovered\u202fhealthcare services\u202facross\u202fJordan, Lebanon, Syria, and\u202fthe West Bank including East Jerusalem.\u00a0It had 2,400<\/span>\u00a0respondents at 72 UNRWA\u00a0health\u00a0centres in these four fields of operation. UNRWA\u2019s fifth fie<\/span>ld, the\u202fGaza Strip<\/span>, had to be excluded from the research because of the outbreak of the war there\u202fin October 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The<\/span>\u00a0aim of the survey was to assess\u202fthe\u202foverall\u202fsatisfaction\u202fof patients, identify\u202fgaps, ensure\u202fquality\u202fhealthcare\u202fdelivery, and\u202fprovide insights\u202ffor\u202fhealth\u202fproviders, policymakers, and stakeholders\u202fwithin UNRWA in order\u202fto\u202fimprove the delivery of primary\u202fhealthcare services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The\u00a0<\/span>report revealed that\u202fthe accessibility of healthcare services\u202fwas evaluated as\u202fhigh, with 90 per cent positive responses regarding geographic accessibility. Social accessibility was reported as\u202fgood, with 98 per cent of respondents indicating they faced\u202fno barriers to accessing healthcare. Interpersonal skills\u202famong\u202fhealth\u202fstaff also received high\u202fratings,\u202fespecially in Lebanon and the West Bank<\/span>\u00a0including East Jerusalem,\u202fwhere staff communication and privacy during consultations were highly rated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u202fA 35-year-old\u00a0<\/span>Palestine Refugee in Lebanon told the survey team that \u201ct<\/span>he health services are of high quality and always save us from paying a lot of money to buy medicines that are mostly missing from private pharmacies, and from the expenses that we pay for private doctors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some\u202fconcerns\u202fwere\u202fnoted\u202fon\u202f<\/span>the availability of chaperones in the healthcare system, particularly in Syria and Jordan, where only 38 per cent and 53 per cent of respondents, respectively, reported\u202fthat\u202fthese\u202fwere\u202fusually\u202favailable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Overall,\u202fhealth\u202fcare\u202fquality\u202fand compliance with\u202fthe\u202fstandards varied\u202fin\u202fthe four\u00a0<\/span>fields of which were assessed. Administrative quality was\u202fthe highest\u202fin Lebanon,\u202fwhereas\u202fSyria\u202fhad\u202fthe lowest scores.\u202fCompliance with\u202fclinical guidelines\u202fwas\u202foverall high\u202fin basic medical care, with Syria leading at 99 per cent. Though\u202freferral mechanisms\u202fshowed variability,\u202fthe West Bank including East Jerusalem was reported to have\u202fthe strongest system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Compliance with standards and best practices\u202fvaried,\u202franging\u202ffrom\u202fa low\u202fof\u202f68<\/span>\u00a0per cent\u202fin\u202fJordan\u202fto\u202fa\u202fhigh\u202fof\u202f82 per cent\u202fin\u202fthe West Bank including East Jerusalem.\u202fQuality of facility management also\u202fvaried:\u202fJordan and Lebanon\u202fgenerally\u202fhad\u202fhigh standards\u202ffor facility management,\u202fwhile\u202fSyria faced\u202fserious\u202fchallenges in\u202fterms of\u202fmaintenance and emergency preparedness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The report outlines several recommendations to address gaps. These include improving infrastructure for better accessibility, enhancing telemedicine services to reduce overcrowding, conducting training sessions to improve staff communication and clinical examination procedures, standardi<\/span>sing referral processes, and optimising appointment scheduling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This report\u00a0<\/span>also reaffirms UNRWA\u2019s irreplaceable role in delivering essential primary healthcare services to millions of Palestine Refugees, particularly under the current challenging conditions. As the only international organisation equipped to provide comprehensive public-like services at this scale, UNRWA\u2019s efforts are vital to ensuring access to quality healthcare in refugee communities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dr.<\/span> Akihiro Seita, Director of UNRWA\u2019s Health Department, reiterated this commitment, stating, \u201cUNRWA\u2019s Health Programme, through its healthcare providers, host countries, and partners, will continue working to ensure high-quality care and satisfaction for every Palestine Refugee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 30 January 2025 A\u00a0new\u00a0report\u00a0on UNRWA\u2019s health services\u00a0has underscored how highly they are rated by the Palestine Refugees that use them. Providing\u00a0free healthcare is at the heart of the mandate given to UNRWA by the UN General Assembly, and the Agency commissioned an independent organisation, CRSM Consulting, to take stock of its performance and areas […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,2005,1961,1745,6891,6251],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-305614","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-jerusalem","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-unrwa","document-subject-west-bank","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/305614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/305614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305616,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/305614\/revisions\/305616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=305614"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=305614"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=305614"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=305614"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=305614"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=305614"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=305614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}