Report details collapse of Syria’s healthcare

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Report Paints A Horrifying Picture Of Syria's Collapsing Healthcare System

Reuters

Mar. 9, 2014, 7:10 PM 439  

 

Thomson Reuters

A view shows damages inside a room at Raqqa national hospital

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Newborns freezing to death in hospital incubators, doctors cutting off limbs to stop patients from bleeding to death, surging cases of polio: a new report published on Monday paints a dire picture of Syria's collapsing healthcare system. The report, issued by charity Save the Children, said some 60 percent of Syria's hospitals have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the three-year-old conflict and nearly half of its doctors have fled the country.
Over 140,000 people have died in the war, which started as a peaceful protest movement against President Bashar al-Assad and degenerated into civil conflict fuelled by regional and international rivalries.

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‘Knocked out with metal bars for lack of anesthesia’ – report details collapse of Syria’s healthcare

Published time: March 10, 2014 04:23
Edited time: March 10, 2014 05:10

 

Reuters / Goran Tomasevic

The toll from the war in Syria has crushed the healthcare system, with a new report from Save the Children revealing that infants are dying in incubators from power cuts, limbs are being cut off due to lack of equipment, and polio cases are on the rise.
A 13-page report released on Monday describes the devastating transformation of Syria’s health system since the start of the war three years ago. The nation's healthcare went from “a middle-income country, with child survival statistics to match” to 60 percent of Syria's hospitals being damaged or destroyed and almost half the country’s doctors fleeing the country.
“Across Syria, 60 percent of hospitals and 38 percent of primary health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and production of drugs has fallen by 70 percent. Nearly half of Syria’s doctors have fled the country: in Aleppo, a city which should have 2,500 doctors, only 36 remain,” the report said.
The impact the war has had on healthcare has been “horrific,” Save the Children states, as the remaining doctors are incapable of treating all those in need of medical assistance.
"Syria's health system is now in such disarray that we have heard reports of doctors using old clothes for bandages and patients opting to be knocked unconscious with metal bars, because there are no anesthetics," the report notes. "The lack of clean water means sterilization for bandages is nearly impossible, causing the threat of infection and possible death."

Syrian women walk past the destruction at Dar Al-Shifa hospital in the northern city of Aleppo.(AFP Photo / Miguel Medina)

More than 100,000 people have died since the war began, according to UN estimates. “Children have witnessed and experienced extreme violence, and more than 10,000 young lives have been lost as a direct result,” the report states.
“It is not just the bullets and the shells that are killing and maiming children. They are also dying from the lack of basic medical care. Syria’s health system has been devastated.”
Save the Children estimates that several thousand children have died due to “greatly reduced access to treatment for life-threatening chronic diseases like cancer, epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure.”

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