(Rivista Internazionale - December 1998: BETHLEHEM 2000 - 2/2)

The new structure and the area which will be prepared as the new outpatient’s department.

The continuation of the present difficult situation is basically due to a stalemate in the peace process that has generated a deplorable situation of economic instability in all the Palestinian Territories. The state of siege… of the Territories blocks every attempt at economic and social development. We have fixed a calendar of religious events, which will take place over a period of sixteen months of celebration, from Christmas 1999 to Easter 2001… It is true that the celebration of the year 2000 is first of all and above all a religious event. But it is equally a historic event involving every population and embracing every culture. Our commitment to establish peace in our region is sincere and we hope that this religious and historic ceremony can be a step which will lead the people of our regions along the path of reconciliation and launch a civil cohabitation based on the respect of the rights of all… It is a peace which has the task to restore the hope of these peoples, their children and that of the peoples of the entire world, so that peace will reign in Palestine in the land of peace. Glory to God in the heavens and on earth peace to men of goodwill." Our project for modernising the last part of the hospital comes within the context of these celebrations; a project which has been submitted to the Holy Father and considered as one of the "100 projects".

Bethlehem. The neonatal ward visited, just after the inauguration ceremony. By the Apostolic Nuncio, H.E. Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo.

There is still some space which has not been restored in the hospital and the planned works will enable continuing the initiative, in particular in the poorest villages around Bethlehem, for receiving patients in the maternity hospital. Today, those who come to our surgery have to wait in the corridors since the consultation rooms are too small; and they amount to over 1000 a month, 12,000 a year!
This modernisation will permit the installation of: • a new out-patients’ department with five consulting rooms, an adjacent ultrasound scan room, a nurses’ post and toilets; • a large waiting area; • a reception office; • a separate office for social assistance; • adequate facilities for waiting rooms, examination rooms and reception; • a laboratory with three separate work spaces, a small office, a space for taking blood samples, a separate space for bacteriology and access to a bathroom for urine specimens; • a classroom suitable for ante-natal exercises; • an adjacent meeting room with a movable partition.
The modernisation has a twofold aim: • to increase the dimensions and effectiveness of the out-patients’ department; • to enable hospital staff provide a better service for people in the Bethlehem region.
It is necessary to ensure complete assistance for mother and infant, with pre-natal, post-natal, gynaecological and paediatric services. We can also offer connected services such as educating the mother, for herself and for her infant. Everything is ready to launch this last part of the programme. We have willingness, courage, faith and hope: but we still need 500,000 dollars to succeed!

Baron Jacques de Dumast
Président Délégué of the Hospital of the Holy Family, Betlehem

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