Doctors Without Borders: The health sector in Syria faces the corruption and sanctions of the previous regime
Doctors Without Borders organization confirmed in a report yesterday, Saturday, that the health sector in Syria faces the corruption of the previous regime through increasing the number of fake employees registered in the Health Ministry, in contrast to shortage of specialists, and the continuation of the sanctions imposed on the country.
The report made it clear that since the fall of the ousted former regime, Doctors Without Borders teams are working to deploy medical and material aid in many regions that was previously held by the ousted regime.
The organization’s medical coordinator, Ahmed Rahma, said: “We went to Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Deir Ezzor, Tartous, and Latakia, as well as to Idleb, where Doctors without Borders has worked for more than ten years.”
Rahma added that “the health sector exists on the ground after years of war, and the medical facilities which we visited in the abovementioned cities a lot of challenges, including a lack of medical supplies, medicines, and staff.”
The report pointed out that the organization noted a significant shortage in the specialist staff, especially anesthetists and surgeons, because some of the personnel in the health sector had left abroad at the beginning of the war which erupted in 2011, and they have not yet returned to Syria.
According to the report, the official number of employees of the Syrian Health Ministry is 82,000 employees, but on the ground, there are far fewer number of workers in the medical field, as the previous Assad regime was working to employ people close to the authority in a fictitious way by registering them on the Health Ministry’s lists, while others served in the militias or held several jobs, some of which were fictitious.
For his part, the organization’s emergency coordinator, Hakim Al-Khaldi, stated that in addition to the massive corruption and embezzlement practiced by the previous regime and the shortage of resources, the economic sanctions that are still affecting Syria today are the main obstacle to rebuilding the health system.
Al-Khaldi pointed out that these sanctions are one of the main reasons why most Syrians live below the poverty line, which is two dollars a day.
It is noteworthy that these restrictions have consequences on the public health of Syrians and on the health system, as the Syrian health system today needs to be rebuilt, and the government has also promised civil servants 400% salary rise, which is to be implemented in several stages
