Latakia, Jableh Medical 03-03-2023

Meeting with Dr. Louay Naddaf , the General Director of Tishreen University Hospital – Latakia

On the morning of Saturday, February 25, 2023, we were on an appointment with Dr. Louay Nadaf, General Director of Tishreen University Hospital, after an arrangement with Dr. Fawaz Badour, Head of the Radiology Department at Tishreen Hospital.

We arrived Early to Dr. Badour’s office, who took us to Dr. Naddaf’s office, and handed him the batch of medicines purchased by NCF as a donation to the victims of the earthquake that struck Syria on February 6, 2023.
We expressed our thanks to Dr. Naddaf for kindly coming to the hospital especially on the weekend (Saturday) and welcoming us in his office, which reflects the humility and courtesy of his manners.

Dr. Naddaf responded to our questions regarding the most prominent challenges facing the hospital administration in caring for citizens, saying:
“The hospital faces a number of challenges that affect its ability to provide services to citizens. The most prominent of these challenges, at the present time, is the loss of some types of medicines and the breakdown of some medical devices due to the inability to maintain them or secure spare parts due to the sanctions imposed on Syria, in addition to the great pressures facing the hospital staff in dealing with overwhelming numbers of people who were injured by the earthquake, as well as the patients.”

“The US sanctions make it very expensive to import any medical equipments or spare parts for them, if any, because the sanctions on the Central Bank of Syria make it difficult for foreign companies to provide us with these devices and equipment,” Dr. Naddaf said, pointing to the reluctance of the German company Siemens, in particular, to repair one of its devices in the hospital for fear of US sanctions.

Naddaf said.”The Bone Densitometry machine, for example, has been completely disabled for a long time because of the inability to secure spare parts for the device due to US sanctions,”
Naddaf stressed that “what is required is to secure sustainable solutions to this shortage of equipment and maintenance operations by lifting the sanctions imposed on Syria.”

The Syrian authorities are making double efforts to secure the shortage of medical supplies, including devices and equipment, as well as some medicines, especially cancer drugs, by circumventing US sanctions. But this is very expensive, and it takes a long time.

Syria manufactured about 90 percent of its needs for medicines before the outbreak of the crisis in 2011, and now imports many medicines after a number of factories stopped.
“The hospital is in urgent need of anesthesia and emergency medicines to treat injuries (fractures and bruises) resulting from the earthquake that struck Syria on February 6. There is also an urgent need to expand the psychotherapy department, as the need has become great, as a result of the panic and fear that many citizens are suffering from.”

Dr Naddaf explained that Latakia province in general lacks specialists in psychiatric diseases, as there is only one doctor in the province, Ghayath Rabie. He added that the nearest psychiatric hospital in Idlib had been completely destroyed.

Tishreen University Hospital

Tishreen University Hospital is the largest university hospital in Syria, and one of the largest hospitals in the Middle East.
It is equipped with specialized medical and nursing staff, in addition to the latest medical devices and equipment. Health care and emergency cases are provided around the clock.
It also provides teaching and training services for students of the Faculty of Medicine at Tishreen University, students of other medical faculties, nursing students and intermediate medical institutes .

The hospital contributes to providing medical care in Syria, in addition to carrying out scientific research in coordination with the Ministry of Higher Education.
The hospital consists of a number of buildings, with 825 beds, and 27 operating rooms.
The hospital includes all specialties, an important oncology center, and quality equipment for radiotherapy.
The hospital serves 80% of the entire province of Latakia, and the surrounding areas, down to Idlib governorate.

The meeting with Dr. Adnan Abboud in Jableh

As I said in a previous message, as soon as we arrived in Jableh on Friday, February 24, 2023, we were received by Dr. Ghassan Abboud, a resident of Jableh, and he accompanied us on a tour of the destroyed or affected areas by the February 6 earthquake, then to one of the shelters, and then he took us to his family home, where we met his father, Dr. Adnan Abboud, his mother and his youngest brother.

Dr. Adnan Abboud speaks with great sorrow about the situation in Jableh after the earthquake that struck it on February 6, 2023. Dr. Adnan, who owns and manages the Nile Radiology Center in Jableh, said: “Jableh and Latakia were only lacking in the earthquake, completing the tragedy that has been hitting Syria for more than a decade. Living conditions were very difficult before the earthquake, where the high prices as a result of inflation grind citizens, and the poverty rate increased significantly.”

Dr. Adnan says that the health sector in Jableh faces great challenges, as a result of poor capabilities, high prices, poverty, and most importantly the sanctions imposed on Syria, which have had a negative impact on medical services in Jableh in particular. The scarcity of energy derivatives, such as gasoline, diesel and gas, negatively affects all facilities, including the only hospital, clinics and medical centers in general, and the transport sector.

Dr. Adnan added that the sanctions on oil continue, despite the exception announced by the United States, knowing that oil is a vital need as it is the backbone of economic life and services, and it is the main source of electrical power, while the authorities are unable to meet the power supply for more than two hours a day.

Dr. Adnan pointed out that the power outage leads to the disruption of medical devices, and thus the inability to repair them, let alone the purchase of new equipmenst, which makes most medical clinics, including the center managed by him (Nile Radiology Center), losing and unable to repair malfunctions that affect their equipment or update their devices.

“Before 2011, my clinic operated at least 12 hours a day. But now, due to power outages for long hours, I had to use a generator for only about 3 hours a day, as there is difficulty in securing the necessary fuel, in addition to the inability of patients to pay for treatment, while the state hospitals are bad due to the blockade and its consequences.”

Dr. Adnan pointed out that the high percentage of poor people, the decline in the percentage of visitors, and the contribution to providing assistance (free treatment) led to a decline in revenues, which made most clinics lose and cannot maintain or repair malfunctions that affect their equipment, as well as modernize it, Thus making its closure inevitable.

Dr. Adnan pointed to the decline in the salaries of Syrians, “Simply, the average income of a Syrian employee was between $ 300 and $ 500 per month before the crisis. Despite the depreciation of the Syrian Pound, we find today that the income of an employee in Syria does not exceed $ 20. For example, the cost of the belly eco was 500 Syrian pounds, which is about 10 dollars . While the simple picture today costs 50,000 Syrian pounds, which is about 5 dollars, and certainly whoever had an income of 10 or 20 dollars, and this is the income of the majority of people, cannot pay these amounts, and these amounts for the doctor are financially useless.”

At the same time, Abboud stressed that the US sanctions are a major reason for the deterioration of the health sector in Jableh, Latakia, and Syria in general, noting that “it is not possible to move a single cent from Syria to buy any medical equipment or repair existing equipment due to the blockade and sanctions.”

Dr. Adnan says bitterly “Sanctions are the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction. The West criticizes the execution of a person in Syria or in any other country in the world under the pretext of human rights, but it executes an entire people without batting an eyelid, and even puts forward its illogical justifications under the pretext of pressuring the regime when it knows that the people are the first to be affected by the sanctions.”

Unfinished Jableh Hospital

With the increase in the population of Jableh and its suburbs, which has more than one million people, its only hospital is no longer able to meet the needs of patients, so the authorities decided to build a modern, larger hospital that meets the needs of the citizens of Jableh and the surrounding areas. Construction of the new hospital began in 2014, but nearly seven years later, the unfinished hospital remains a testament to the difficult economic situation exacerbated by US sanctions, as the government cannot sign any new contracts to buy equipment for the hospital due to sanctions.

In this context, both Iraq and Malaysia have shown interest in equipping Jableh Hospital, as the Health and University Education Authority in the Iraqi province of Karbala announced its adoption of the rehabilitation of Jableh Hospital with a large number of medical and laboratory equipment, as well as equipping some specialties with advanced beds, and rehabilitating some departments of the hospital.
In a related context, Jableh is witnessing a severe shortage of food, medicine, and children’s needs for milk and diapers against the backdrop of the closure of many shops.