In Syria, the regime is making hospitals and health staff part of its system of repression. This is exactly what happened in Bahrain a few months ago, where it was publicly denounced by Médecins Sans Frontières.
Even in the worst of circumstances the most basic respect for humanity demands that hospitals are protected and health staff are authorised to carry out their work. But in Syria today, a policy of terror is seeing injured demonstrators persecuted within hospital walls, and reprisals made against any doctors who attempt to treat them.
Terrified by the prospect of arrest and torture by the security services, and fearful of being refused hospital treatment, most of those injured during the bloody demonstrations in Syria are turning in desperation to unofficial networks of medical staff. Driven underground, the conditions in which these doctors are working are difficult and dangerous.
Médecins Sans Frontières calls on the Syrian authorities to re-establish the neutrality of medical facilities. As an impartial organisation whose only concern is for the victims of violence, we have been trying for months to obtain official authorisation to come to their aid, so far without success.
The Syrian health system has both well-trained medical staff, including many specialised surgeons, and the technology to deal with emergencies involving cases of major trauma. If the treatment of the injured today is more like bush medicine, carried out by doctors hidden in cellars, kitchens and mosques, this is due to the merciless persecution of demonstrators and the medical staff seeking to treat them, and the terror that this persecution inspires.
By failing to comply with demands to report patients to the health authorities, or – as has been required in Homs governorate since last April – to refer patients injured “as a consequence of the events” to the military hospital, health workers run the risk of being considered enemies of the regime, and face possible arrest, imprisonment and even murder.
Driven underground, there is no knowing how long an injured patient will have to wait for treatment. Possibilities for treating the most serious cases or dealing with surgical or post-operative complications are limited. Anaesthetics, sterilisation and hygiene conditions are inadequate; and no treatment can last for more than a few hours. The clandestine doctors cannot risk asking for blood packs from the central blood bank as it is now under the authority of the Ministry of Defence, which has exclusive control over distribution.
The simple fact of having medical equipment or medicines in a house is considered a crime, forcing medical staff to constantly set up their makeshift hospitals in new locations. Private health centres which are still treating the injured – disguising the diagnoses to avoid detection – are now being attacked and destroyed by the Syrian armed forces, often with barely enough time to evacuate patients and equipment to a safer location. A very few of the injured who are fit enough to travel have found refuge in neighbouring countries where they can hope for medical treatment in decent conditions.
As Médecins Sans Frontières has been unable to obtain official authorisation to access the public hospitals, we are supporting a number of networks of clandestine doctors who are working in secret with extremely limited resources. We are providing medicines, medical equipment and surgical and transfusion kits.
The aid that we are bringing today, although limited by circumstances, is a concrete expression of Médecins Sans Frontières' solidarity with patients and health staff in Syria. Hospitals must be safe places where the injured can be treated without fear of discrimination, ill treatment or torture, and where health staff do not have to put their lives at risk simply to comply with their professional ethics.
Source:Dr Marie-Pierre Allié (president of Médecins Sans Frontières in France.)
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