The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has warned of a worsening crisis caused by an acute shortage of essential laboratory capacity, stressing that medical laboratories now lack the basic requirements to continue operating, foremost among them the chemical testing devices needed to diagnose and monitor thousands of patients.
In an urgent press statement, the ministry said the laboratory system had suffered a devastating blow, with 52% of all devices destroyed and completely out of service.
It added that 30% of the devices still operating have become worn out and highly prone to breakdowns, with no spare parts available for maintenance, leaving them at risk of a sudden and total halt at any moment.
The ministry stressed that there is now a critical need to bring in modern laboratory devices immediately to compensate for what has been destroyed and ensure diagnostic services continue and patient care does not stop.
It warned that the continuation of the crisis at its current levels is not merely a logistical problem, but threatens to deprive medical teams of essential diagnostic tools, directly and dangerously affecting patients' lives.
The ministry called for immediate and urgent intervention to bring in new laboratory devices and the necessary spare parts to save what remains of Gaza's laboratory capacity and prevent it from stopping permanently.
