In Response to Adalah's Petition, State Commits to Adding Medical Care Workers to Operate Two Family Health Clinics in Lagiyya and Hura in the Naqab
On 28 April 2004, a Supreme Court hearing was held on a petition filed by Adalah demanding that the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) allocate the necessary physician and nurse positions needed to operate two family health clinics in the Arab Bedouin towns of Lagiyya and Hura in the Naqab (Negev). In its response to the petition, dated 19 April 2004, the state replied that the MOH would allocate 3.5 positions (three registered nurses and a 0.5 physician position) needed to operate one additional family health clinic in each of these towns. Adalah Attorneys Marwan Dalal and Morad El-Sana, who filed the petition, argued that the posts should be filled immediately, as the existing clinics in these towns are extremely overcrowded, causing substantial harm to the quality of health services that they provide, and as they serve a population suffering from the highest infant mortality rate in the state. At Adalah's request, the state committed to submitting a timetable and providing other logistical information for the implementation of this decision to the petitioners and to the Court by 10 May 2004.
Adalah filed the petition to the Supreme Court on 26 January 2004 on behalf of two mothers, and three married couples, Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel, living in Lagiyya and Hura; Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; the Galilee Society; the Regional Municipality of Lagiyya; and in Adalah's own name. The petition includes affidavits from individuals living in Lagiyya and Hura who describe the poor services provided by the existing clinics in the towns.
According to the MOH, the role of family health clinics is to prevent infectious diseases through immunizations, to facilitate the early detection of health problems through regular check-ups, and to provide training and guidance to the local community for a healthy and disease-preventative lifestyle. Additional functions of family health clinics are to provide guidance to women on general health issues, domestic violence, and family planning.
Currently, there is one family health clinic operating in Lagiyya that provides health services to some 11,000 people who reside in the town as well as in other surrounding unrecognized Arab villages. The average annual birth rate in Lagiyya stands at 260. In 2003, there were 1,345 children between the ages of 0-6 living in Lagiyya; the number of children aged 0-14 stood at 2,934. The one family health clinic operating in Hura provides services to its 7,000 inhabitants as well as to Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel living the surrounding unrecognized villages. In 2003, there were 1,695 children between the ages of 0-4 living in Hura; the number of children aged 0-14 stood at 3,899.
MOH regulations require that a family health clinic be established in any community with at least 30 births per year; the number of births in Lagiyya and Hura far exceed this number. On various occasions, the MOH has acknowledged the need to establish and operate additional clinics, and has also recognized the lack of suitable health services that currently exist in both villages. However, while the MOH approved the construction an additional clinic in each of the towns, to date, it has failed to operate them claiming a lack of necessary funds to finance physicians and nurses.
In the petition, Adalah argued that the MOH's failure to operationalize the two new clinics in Lagiyya and Hura is illegal and violates the right to life, to health, to dignity, and to privacy. Adalah emphasized the necessity of staffing and operating these clinics, particularly noting that the Arab Palestinian Bedouin living in the Naqab have the highest infant mortality rate in Israel: 17.1 per 1,000 births, as compared with 4.7 per 1,000 births among Jewish Israelis living in this region.
H.C. 786/04, Ahlam El-Sana, et. al. v. Ministry of Health, et. al.
