Amid suspension of support provided by organisations | Thousands of patients in Idlib countryside remain helpless as Ariha hospital suspends working

The medical situation in Idlib city and countryside has been deteriorating with the closure of tens of hospitals, medical centres and dispensaries, after humanitarian organisations having stopped funding medical projects under the pretext of suspension of support granted by donors.

In this context, work has been suspended in Ariha hospital, which had provided medical services for women and children, in light of the stifling crisis which hit the hospital following the suspension of funds and lack of the most of medicines. Meanwhile, thousands of patients in Ariha city and Jabal Al-Zawiyah have failed to get free medical services at other hospitals,. Accordingly, the region’s residents have found themselves forces to head to private hospitals which offer medical services for high cost unaffordable by the many.

This coincides with the suspension of support provided to relief, medical and service projects and the withdrawal of many organisations from Syria in light of the disastrous living conditions in Idlib city and countryside.

Speaking to SOHR activists, a displaced man known by his initials as M. A. from Jabal Al-Zawiyah said “the suspension of support provided to hospitals have placed challenges against the residents in the most areas of Idlib and turns the region into a fertile land for diseases and epidemics which threaten the safety and lives of the residents and further burdening them.”

Another man known as A. A. told SOHR “I have little daughter who suffered a sever medical condition, after the paediatric hospital refused to treat her, because there were no available medical equipment, so I found myself forced to take her to a private hospital. The fees of medical services provided by the private hospital were very high, but I had no other options. The suspension of work at hospitals is a critical crisis and hard hits residents of Idlib, who have been already grappling with tragic living conditions.”