Intensive Care training, Al Shifa hospital, Gaza. The objective of the "Intensive Care" project is to support and train Gazaoui medical staff to treat patients in intensive care situations. *** Local Caption *** The blockade, set up when Hamas came to power in Gaza in June 2007, imposes tight restrictions on people’s movements and access to goods. In addition to its economic impact, with the rise in unemployment and poverty, the blockade also affects the health sector.

. In January 2011, following a series of assessments implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health, MSF decided to set up an intensive care programme with several facets.
Although the medical system in Gaza is functional, the support and training that medical staff need to treat patients in intensive care situations has now become an issue that MSF wishes to tackle.



In addition to the training courses for Gazan doctors offered at the Al Shifa hospital, MSF will be sending specialist medical equipment technicians to the Nasser de Khan Younis hospital in southern Gaza. They will provide the hospital with technical support so that it can optimise its use of intensive care equipment. An MSF nurse has been giving staff at the Nasser hospital intensive care training since March 2013, using a bedside teaching approach. MSF also plans to develop its intensive care support programme by offering physiotherapy training in the near future.