The Hospital Gómez Ulla, belonging to the Ministry of Defense, has been the health center of the Community of Madrid in which some of the 19 wounded and sick children who have arrived in the early hours of this Monday to the Air Base of Torrejón de Ardoz after being evacuated from the Gaza Strip in a new operation organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the ministries of Defense; Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation; Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and Interior.
The children, who have traveled with 73 companions and accompanied by the Minister of Health, Mónica García, from Jordan, are patients of traumatology produced by the effects of the Israeli attacks; oncology and hematology; congenital heart disease; neurologies; nephrologies; ophthalmology; and a gastrointestinal.
This is the fifth evacuation carried out in a year, after Spain was the first European country to activate the evacuation procedure with the WHO and the European Commission and later joined by other countries of the Union.
The patients and their companions, a total of 92 people, from Gaza, were taken to the West Bank border controlled by the Israeli army and Jordan. The team from the Ministry of Health and the Spanish embassy in Jordan headed by the minister and with the participation of medical personnel mobilized for the occasion have received them. The transfer to the Amman base and the medical supervision of the patients was coordinated by Médecins Sans Frontières.
Once in Spain, patients will be distributed by hospitals in Castilla La Mancha, Asturias, Castilla y León, Euskadi, Murcia, Aragón and Catalonia and the Gómez Ulla, belonging to the Ministry of Defense.
In addition, the relatives of a minor who was evacuated in the previous August operation have also been transferred to Navarre so that they can be checked if they are compatible and perform the bone marrow transplant that the minor needs.
As in the previous four such evacuations, this is an operation coordinated by the Ministry of Health together with the World Health Organization and the European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC).
This operation has mobilized two aircraft of the Air and Space Army. More than a dozen soldiers from the Air and Space Army’s Medical Aeroevacuation Unit, including doctors and flight patients, intensivists or health technicians, will ensure the safety and health of the passage during the trip to Spain.
The reception and comprehensive care of family members will be managed by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, together with the NGO Accem, including accommodation, maintenance, psychological and legal care, and translation and interpretation services.
The distribution and coordination of health in the various centres has been managed by the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA), an agency attached to the Ministry of Health.
The Spanish Cooperation Office in Amman, dependent on the AECID, has carried out all the procedures, while the Spanish Embassy in Jordan has processed the visas.
This is the fifth humanitarian evacuation of this type organized by Spain in the last year and a half, within the Medical Evacuation procedure (MEDEVAC), activated by the European Commission Emergency Response Coordination Center (ERCC), through the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior, and the WHO.