Supreme Medical Committee Renews its Call to launch the Medical Air Bridge to Save Thousands of Patients

The Supreme Medical Committee advocating for the Medical Air Bridge has renewed its call on the international community and international organizations to fulfill their obligations regarding the launch of the Air Medical Bridge. Head of the Medical Committee, Dr. Mutahar Al-Darwish, said in a statement on Friday that “the committee is still receiving repeated promises from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the previous agreements were overturned and to date, no definitive solution has been presented to save critical situations.”

He added that the first flight of the first batch of patients was scheduled for last October 20th, but the US-Saudi Coalition had broken their promise and canceled the trip.

Al-Darwish confirmed that “the Coalition countries do not want to implement the agreements, and that more than 50 patients are still in Sana’a with their companions after hardship and long travel to Sana’a several provinces.” He explained that the patients are in bad condition and that their health conditions deteriorated as a result of the relapsed they suffered because of delaying their traveling date.

He pointed out that a number of patients died due to flight delays and that there was a clear deliberate negligence of their cases by the aggression and the United Nations. He also pointed out that the patients suffer from all aspects of health and financial as they left their homes in several provinces and went to the capital Sana’a a month ago in order to travel for treatment.

For his part, General Coordinator of the Medical Air Bridge Dr. Yahya Al-Hamdani said that “since the agreement of creating the Medical Air Bridge and the Medical Committee had frequent received dates and has been manipulated by the World Health Organization.”

He said “we were informed to prepare critical cases that require travel and after processing the patients’ applications, we are surprised to postpone the flight and be informed that the US-Saudi Coalition refuses to allow the plane to take off.”

Al-Hamdani stressed that patients’ lives depend on the seriousness of the United Nations and the countries leading the coalition. The UN is responsible for pressuring them to fulfill their obligations and hold them fully responsible for the lives of patients promised to allow to travel.”