16 health centers provide 24/7 services
Doha: Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) is supporting the health care sector in Syria and is trying to reach out to as many beneficiaries as possible, in the face of increasing demand as a result of the protracted Syrian crisis.
Several major projects are in progress, including the establishment and running of 16 primary health care centers across Syria and urgent medical intervention in the war-stricken areas.
A recently functional health facility is Babbila Medical Center in Eastern Ghouta, Rif Dimashq. Located on the southern outskirts of Damascus, the center began operation four months ago to serve the area's population and IDPs of different ages, with 24/7 ambulance services.
Working with an operational budget of $118,000, the center offers natural childbirth, neonatal/preterm care, and incubator care. Its clinics include pediatrics, internal medicine, gynecology & obstetrics, dentistry, orthopedics, general surgery, and urology. The center's pharmacy secures medicines for free for the patients.
More offerings are psychology, physiotherapy, surgical consultation, minor surgery, as well as health awareness on chronic and common disease prevention.
Over the past four months, statistics show that the center received nearly 12,000 patients, or 3,000 per month. It is staffed by eight specialist doctors, six nurses, a physiotherapist, a lab technician, a pharmacist, and two service personnel.
In the central part of the beleaguered Eastern Ghouta, QRCS is running Saqba Health Center, at a cost of $242,000. With the available resources, the center works to offer high-level public health services.
The center's scope of work expanded from gynecology & obstetrics, neonatal care, and pediatrics to integrated ambulance, dental, radiographic, general clinic, and gynecological surgery services. So far, it has served about 10,000 patients, or 2,500 per month.
As clashes has escalated recently, QRCS initiated a quick response program to help the families displaced from Al-Waer neighborhood, Homs, which has been under siege since more than two years.
Following a ceasefire deal, hundreds of families began moving to Idlib, which requires urgent humanitarian assistance, basically shelter.
QRCS personnel was the first to reach Idlib to prepared shelter requirements and receive the first batch of 700 men, women, and children. They secured 700 mattresses and 1,400 blankets, at a cost of $22,000.
Since the eruption of the Syrian conflict, QRCS has been working to relieve Syrian refugees and IDPs in various aspects of health care, food and nonfood aid, shelter, and water & sanitation. Over four years, these interventions have exceeded QR 300 million, serving more than 1 million Syrians.
The Peninsula
