Dr Hamza AlKateab, an eyewitness to the cruel lack of access to healthcare in Aleppo during its siege, was one of the 31 doctors working in eastern Aleppo and indeed the entire regionin 2012. Trained by Mehad (Ex-UOSSM France) in war medicine, he gives us a poignant account of the state of health and vital needs in Syria.
Over time, the flow of migration out of Aleppo depended on the conflict. During periods of calm, people who had fled would return to Aleppo, but this meant more victims, more chronic illnesses and a lack of access to proper care. We depended on limited donations. Hospitals were the least safe place for patients because health facilities were the main target of the bombardments.
If we told patients that their convalescence would last a week in hospital, they would reply:
“No, it’s dangerous to stay in a hospital for that long. I’d rather move out of Aleppo or try to take my medicines at home”.
Why did I decide to stay, you might ask? The nurses, doctors and other carers were considered to be the relief workers of Aleppo, which in 2013 was home to 1.4 million people. If one of us was absent for a week, the consequences for patients and hospitals were disastrous. I couldn’t leave. Providing care to people was not just a professional job but a form of resistance. That’s what made me commit to staying there.
Training, vital support for Syrian healthcare workers and front-line hospitals
What was certain was that our work and our actions would not be possible without technical, material and financial support. In 2012, a friend called to tell me that I should go and meet a member of Mehad (UOSSM France at the time) in Turkey who was prepared to train us. At the time, I didn’t know what the organisation did, but I remember very well the day I received two medical kits from them. This person later came to visit us in East Aleppo and that’s when my colleagues and I began to understand what Mehad (ex-UOSSM France) was trying to do.
It was real groundwork. Mehad was filling the gaps, helping with assessments, funding primary health centres and paying carers’ salaries. This is essential, because a person can volunteer in a conflict zone for a certain period of time, but they need to be provided with electricity, medical equipment and machines, as well as enough money to support their family. The need was unlimited. Some organisations provided medical kits, others salaries and running costs, but Mehad understood the needs and dynamics of the time and responded to them, particularly that of war medicine.
Conflict zones lack everything, so we won’t always have the best equipment and a patient’s diagnosis won’t be the same in peacetime or in a developed country. Many organisations have provided training outside Syria, particularly in Turkey, because of the country’s proximity to Aleppo. This meant that doctors and nurses had to be away for a week, and only those who could travel (valid passports) did so. Professor Raphaël Pitti, alongside Mehad, came to Aleppo to carry out the training on site, which enabled all the medical staff in the hospitals to receive training.
Sometimes, because of the attacks, we had to interrupt the training to go and help and treat the wounded, and we’d start again the next day.
It was certainly technical support, but above all it was psychological. The carers felt supported, less alone in the battle they were waging. They gained in strength and positivity, which helped them to carry on despite the human losses we were experiencing.
A hospital, the guardian of health, should never be attacked. Over the last 11 years, more than 630 hospitals have been targeted.
Let’s give Syrian health workers hope again!
