HEALTH CARE /GULF FALLOUT : Charity Hospital Has Money Crisis : Facility serves 1.7 million Palestinians. Invasion cuts off funds from Kuwait.

For two decades, Makassed Hospital atop the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem has been the chief medical center for 1.7 million Palestinians in the occupied territories, almost their only succor when seriously ill or injured.

But now, because of a shut-off of funds from Kuwait, the 250-bed charity hospital is facing financial disaster, and the staff is worried.

Kuwait and other sources in the Persian Gulf region have supplied fully 70% of the hospital’s annual budget of $15 million, and not a dime has arrived from the region since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2. (The other 30% comes from private donors, mostly Palestinian, and fees for treatment paid by those who can afford it.)

“These funds are vital to our future,” the hospital’s director, Dr. Adnan S. Hamad, said, poring over budget figures in his office. “This means we will immediately have to cut down on all planned improvements in every department and outpatient services.”

Makassed treats about 60,000 outpatients a year, along with 12,000 hospitalized patients. About 5,900 surgical operations were performed last year, and about half the beds were occupied by surgical patients.

For the last three years, the hospital has been running at about 107% of capacity; occasionally, cots are set up in the corridors.

Dr. Hamad has sent general manager Mahmoud Habbibbeh to seek out potential donors in the Arab world. But Hamad admits that the task has not been helped by official Palestinian support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s actions.

“Raising money is now the most important concern of mine,” Hamad said. “We are appealing to anyone who can help us--in the Arab world, in Europe, in the United States. We are calling on all those who believe in medicine for needy human beings. But we are worried that our call for help is falling on deaf ears.”

Hamad, 34, who received his degree in hospital administration from England’s Manchester University, admits that Makassed has been called the “Intifada Hospital” after the term in Arabic for the Palestinian uprising against the Israelis that began in December of 1987. He thinks the appellation is undeserved.

“We were under occupation,” he said, “and many of the intifada victims came here because they were afraid to go to Israeli hospitals, where they might be arrested. We have always been a charity hospital, and we take in anyone in need. About 9,000 intifada victims have been treated, mostly as outpatients.

“There is a psychological trust between Palestinians and Makassed. But we treat Jews, Christians, Muslims--anyone who comes to our doors. Many can’t afford an Israeli hospital, or don’t have the necessary medical insurance. In a way, we are the national health service for Palestinians.”

Hamad and his assistant, Dr. Amin Thalji, 41, who is chief of pediatrics and was at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, point out that Makassed offers the only advanced medical treatment in all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

West Bank towns like Hebron and Nablus have small infirmaries and maternity clinics, Thalji said, but only Makassed offers advanced treatment in such specialties as orthopedics, radiology, neurology, urology, postnatal care, open-heart surgery and other vascular techniques. About 15% of the beds are occupied by intensive-care patients.

The hospital has a staff of 760, including 100 physicians and 300 nurses. It is the only teaching hospital in the occupied territories.

“We have done our best to serve an area with more than a million and a half people,” Thalji said. “We know that the gulf crisis has caused a lot of economic hardship in the West Bank . . . . But we must differentiate between shutting down a shoe factory and a hospital.”

Hamad added: “We are trying to meet the medical needs of the Palestinian people. We’d hate to see the quality of medicine here suffer because of the crisis. But we have to make up those funds somehow. We need all the help we can get.”