Lancashire doctor dealt with horrid conveyor belt of injured people in Gaza

Dr Matt Newport talks to Granada Reports about his humanitarian work with the Manchester based charity UK-Med in Gaza.

A doctor says he gives his two-year-old daughter extra big hugs after returning from treating children with appalling injuries in Gaza.

Dr Matt Newport from Ramsbottom, in Bury, has recently returned from a third stint working with Manchester based frontline medical charity UK-Med as part of the UK Government’s humanitarian response to the Israel/Gaza crisis.

Matt said: “On one of the first nights of my most recent deployment, there was a mass casualty incident with around 35 patients brought in.

"Four died of their wounds, but I’m trying to focus on those we managed to save.

"It resembled a horrid conveyor belt, though each patient had their own story.

"Cases ranged from adults and children with gunshot wounds, traumatic amputations, and other horrendous injuries."

Matt works for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust at the Blackburn and Burnley Teaching Hospitals, as well as the North West Air Ambulance.

He says general medical care in Gaza can no longer take place.

“I think it sometimes gets lost amongst all the violence that there are so many people with existing serious medical conditions urgently needing treatment like cancers, diabetes, heart disease or kidney problems needing dialysis," he said.

"All of this has ground to a halt.

“One really challenging case we dealt with was a baby with life-threatening burns who had fallen into a vat of boiling water the family were using for cooking because they were living in a tent after being displaced from their house because of the conflict.

“I’m not a particularly emotional individual but what I’ve seen has made me hug my daughter Meredith that little bit tighter when I see her.“

When I returned just in time for her second birthday in March, I had to opt not to pick her up from nursery because I couldn’t trust myself not to get upset in front of the nursery staff.

“It has been really hard being away, but at the same time, I want to be a role model and instil in Meredith that helping others is important.

“We’ve been treating traumatic injuries unlike anything I am used to seeing in the UK where you deal with serious road accidents, stabbings and the occasional shooting, though not of the severity of what I’ve experienced in Gaza.”

He said: “A lot had changed for my third deployment. We’d been forced to abandon the guest house we’d previously stayed in, as it was now outside the ‘humanitarian zone’ so were sleeping in tents in the hospital grounds.

“The vicious fighting in Rafah was within sight of our hospital.

"The sound of gunfire and explosions in neighbouring areas was our morning alarm clock and would continue throughout the day and night.

It just became background noise. The devastation looked apocalyptic.

“You get used to waking up in the night to some really big bangs and the blast waves rattling the barbed wire around our compound, often followed by the wail of ambulance sirens. It became such a common occurrence you’d just go back to sleep.

He added: “The local hospital staff have it much, much worse than us. I know I will be returning home to safety.

“They were coming down to the hospital each morning, often via donkey and cart from the tented displacement camps, and you can see the stress and fear in their eyes.

"I can’t imagine how they are finding the courage to come to work on the wards, let alone treat and care for upwards of 500 patients a day.”

UK-Med is now running two FCDO-funded field hospitals – based in Al Mawasi and Deir El Balah – which have treated more than 100,000 patients in Gaza so far. 

Matt said: “The unfortunate consequence of any conflict is that innocent civilians get caught up in it through absolutely no fault of their own.

“Hopefully one day my daughter Meredith will be proud that her daddy stood in solidarity with human beings who are suffering to show them they are not alone and that people care.”

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