Syria’s Raqqa residents criticize varying wages of clinics’ medical check-ups
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Residents of the city of Raqqa, northern Syria, criticized the varying wages of medical check-ups, as one of the consequences of the continuing collapse in the value of the Syrian pound (SYP), which has affected all sectors.
Patients’ families said, the regulatory authorities are completely absent from monitoring the fees of the medical check-ups in private clinics and centers.
Abdulkarim Khalaf, a resident of Raqqa, said that he has to pay a different check-up wage every time he accompanies his nine-year-old daughter, who suffers from diabetes, to the doctor.
However, his difficult living condition and his low income force him to borrow money to secure treatment for his daughter.
The majority of the patients are suffering from common diseases such as kidney failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiac and internal diseases, according to the director of the Modern Medicine Hospital in Raqqa.
The medical check-up wages in Raqqa ranges between 2,000 SYP and 12,000 SYP.
The National Hospital of Raqqa provides medical services such as dialysis and surgeries, while the work of the Maternity Hospital and the Kurdish Red Crescent Hospital is limited to services for children and gynecological diseases.
The Health Committee in Raqqa refused to comment on the lack of follow-up to the variety in the wages of medical check-ups in private clinics.
Muhammad Abu Hassan, father of a fifteen-year-old child who needs regular eye test, said that he paid different amounts of money as a check- up every time he went for follow-up.
Abu Hassan believed that the AANES health institutions should set acceptable check-up wages for medical tests in private clinics.
“We can sometimes ignore buying some foodstuffs, but we are forced to see a doctor,” he added.
Raqqa includes nearly 250 private medical clinics, according to statistics of the Health Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).