Editing UNRWA (section)

===Health program===
Since 1950, UNRWA has been the main healthcare provider for Palestinian refugees.<ref>[http://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/health From UNRWAs page and sub-pages about health services] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140901133851/http://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/health |date=1 September 2014 }}; no update date shown, accessed 2014-08-25</ref> Basic health needs are met through a network of primary care clinics, providing access to secondary treatment in hospitals, food aid to vulnerable groups, and environmental health in refugee camps.

Key figures for 2014 are:
* 139 primary health facilities based in or near UNRWA settlements/camps
* 3,107 health staff
* 3,134,732 refugees accessing health services
* 9,290,197 annual patient visits

The health of Palestine refugees has long resembled that of many populations in the transition from [[developing world]] to [[developed world]] status. However, there is now a demographic transition.

<blockquote>People are living longer and developing different needs, particularly those related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and chronic conditions that require lifelong care, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. A healthy life is a continuum of phases from infancy to old age, each of which has unique, specific needs, and our programme therefore takes a 'life-cycle approach' to providing its package of preventive and curative health services.

To address the changing needs of Palestine refugees, we undertook a major reform initiative in 2011. We introduced the Family Health Team (FHT) approach, based on the [[World Health Organization]]-indicated values of primary health care, in our primary health facilities (PHFs).

The FHT offers comprehensive primary health care services based on wholistic care of the entire family, emphasizing long-term provider-patient relationships and ensuring person-centeredness, comprehensiveness, and continuity. Moreover, the FHT helps address intersectional issues that impact health, such as diet and physical activity, education, gender-based violence, child protection, poverty, and community development.</blockquote>

Medical services include outpatient care, dental treatment, and rehabilitation for the physically disabled. Maternal and child healthcare is a priority for UNRWA's health program. School health teams and camp medical officers visit UNRWA schools to examine new pupils to aid early detection of childhood diseases. All UNRWA clinics offer family planning services with counselling that emphasises the importance of birth spacing as a factor in maternal and child health. Agency clinics also supervise the provision of food aid to nursing and pregnant mothers who need it, and six clinics in the Gaza Strip have their own maternity units. Infant mortality rates have for some time been lower among refugees than the [[World Health Organization]]'s benchmark for the developing world.

UNRWA provides refugees with assistance in meeting the costs of hospitalisation either by partially reimbursing them, or by negotiating contracts with government, NGOs, and private hospitals. UNRWA's environmental health services program "controls the quality of drinking water, provides sanitation, and carries out vector and rodent control in refugee camps, thus reducing the risk of epidemics."