Select a region
A visiting Palestinian eye nurse has shared her amazement at the cleanliness and tidiness of the Jersey hospital's eye department.
Muyassar Ghanem works at the St. John Eye Hospital in East Jerusalem, the only charitable provider of expert eye care in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and has this week been in the island as part of a partnership between St. John Ambulance and Jersey Overseas Aid.
St. John Ambulance in Jersey has been partially funding her salary since 2004. Last year, Jersey Overseas Aid partnered with St. John Ambulance to pay for Ms Ghanem's full salary. The two have since agreed to extend that partnership until 2021 to allow her to continue her work with the thousands of individuals living with high levels of poverty and with limited access to medical care in her area.
Last year, specialist staff like Ms Ghanem helped the hospital perform over 4,800 major operations and see over 135,000 patients.
Ms Ghanem spent four days in Jersey to share her stories with St. John Ambulance volunteers and show how JOA supports the work of local charities overseas. As part of her visit, the nurse attended St. John Ambulance annual review, gave a presentation at Jersey Museum and visited the General Hospital.
Following her visit, she told Express she had been impressed by the size of the eye department. She was shown the different rooms and machines and got to meet many nurses. "They were all so nice," she said. "The department was all very beautiful, very organized, tidy and clean. The whole island is very clean!"
Ms Ghanem, who obtained her first nursing diploma in 1990, with a Bachelor degree in nursing following a few years after that, said she was also impressed to see nurses perform eye injections in the hospital. "I loved to see nurses do advanced things. In my hospital, it's only doctors who do things like this. I would love to see that in my hospital. It makes you feel you can do special things."
Pictured: Muyassar Ghanem works at the St. John Eye Hospital in East Jerusalem.
Since her first diploma, Ms Ghanem has taken on extra courses including in visual electrophysiology to help with the screening of hereditary diseases.
To help fight preventable blindness, she recently learned about new ways to analyse the layers of the retina and the eye blood blow to catch pathologies early. Last year, she also started a Masters degree and will be focusing on ways to help people who were born blind.
She said she was impressed to see advanced technology and care being delivered in a small hospital like Jersey's. "We have all those things in our hospital because it's big but I didn't expect to see an ocular prosthesis department in a small place," she explained.
Pictured: Ms Ghanem said she was impressed to see the equipment and level of care dispensed at the Hospital given its size.
The nurse explained that eye care is crucial in her area as many young children suffer from hereditary diseases that affect their sight. Palestine has rates of blindness which are ten times higher than the West. Blindness is even more so frequent in the Gaza strips where intra-familial marriages are very common, leading to a high number of genetic diseases.
She also explained that patients sometimes have to wait and walk hours to even get to the hospital. "You need to have permits to get into Jerusalem," she said. "I live in Bethlehem and I need a permit myself. I have to drive to the checkpoint and leave my car there because I can't take it into Jerusalem. Then I have to be checked and get on a bus to the hospital.
"Patients have to come to the check points where they queue for hours and then they have to walk to the hospital because they can't take the bus. It takes them hours. It is especially difficult if you are in the Gaza Strip because sometimes they close the borders completely."
Pictured: Ms Ghanem gave a presentation on her work at Jersey Museum on Monday.
Both St. John Ambulance and JOA hope that their sponsorship will help Ms Ghanem carry on delivering "life-changing treatment in one of the busiest eye hospitals in the world."
Deputy Carolyn Labey, Chair of the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, said: "The need for eye care and general care is desperate in the area. St. John Eye Hospital delivers treatment for all, regardless of race, religion or their financial situation. The hospital is very much reliant on aid and without the sponsorship it would be very hard for Muyassar."
Barry Marsden, St. John Ambulance Jersey’s Commandery Executive Officer, added: "The people of Jersey have donated money over the years to support Muyassar's work. We are really happy that she got to visit as it also helped marked the JOA's 50th anniversary. It shows the tangible things the charity does.
"Muyassar's work is managing to change people's lives."
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.