Physicians for Human Rights has issued a report, “Syria’s Medical Community Under Assault“, detailing the destruction of health care services since the uprising began in March 2011:
Since the war began in Syria in 2011, hospitals, field clinics, ambulances, and vehicles transporting medicine and medical
supplies have been deliberately targeted for destruction by government and opposition forces. Medical personnel have
also been arrested, tortured, executed, and “disappeared.”
These crimes against the principle of medical neutrality — which ensures safe access to medical facilities, protects health
care workers and their patients, and allows medical workers to provide unbiased care –– have compounded the suffering
of civilians and hastened the devastation of an already fragile health care system.
As of January 24, 2014, at least 398 medical personnel had been killed in the conflict —149 doctors, 82 nurses, 80 medics, and 40 pharmacists.
As of mid-November 2013, 32 Syrian Arab Red Crescent workers had died while carrying out humanitarian work.
Five Médecins Sans Frontières staff kidnapped in northern Syria in January are still missing.
- As of April 2013, 37% of hospitals in Syria were out of service and 20% were partially damaged
- As of July 2013, 92% of ambulances had been damaged and 52% were out of service
- As of July 2013, almost 50% of public health centers in Homs were no longer operating
- As of July 2013, 70% of health centers in Aleppo, Deir Ez Zor, and Idlib Provinces were either damaged or out of service
- 2.5 million people in the city of Aleppo have been without blood supply or blood bags since July 2012
- As of September 2013, 15,000 doctors had fled the country
- Of 6,000 physicians in Aleppo Governorate before the war, 250 remained as of July 2013
- Of 1,000 doctors in Eastern Ghouta before the war, about 30 remained as of December 2013
Read full report….