KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – For four months, residents of northern Syria’s Kobani have been forced to buy medicines and medical supplies from private pharmacies, despite visiting the public hospital to avoid medical expenses in private hospitals and clinics.
Kobani Hospital has been suffering from shortages of medicine and emergency medical equipment due to interruptions from a health organization and the Health Board in northeast Syria.
Costs for a free hospital
Wahida Muhammad Khan, mother of a sick child in the hospital, said she was forced to buy most of the medicines for her child from a pharmacy outside the hospital because they are unavailable in the hospital.
“The prices of most of the medicines are high, while the financial situation of most of the residents is terrible due to the economic deterioration in the country in general,” she added.
Khan bought medical supplies like masks, serum and oxygen tanks, “because they are unavailable in the hospital.”
Around 8,000 people per month benefit from the services of Kobani Hospital, including check-ups, treatment, and free surgeries, according to the hospital’s records.
However, the high costs of the medicines often prevent people from benefiting these services, or make them very costly.
Khan, a mother of seven, pointed out that she faced difficulties in securing the price of the medicines, “as the salary is not enough.”
“The residents go to the free hospital because they cannot afford the prices of private medicines outside the hospital,” she added.
Shock against expectations
Malka Issa, a mother of five from the city of Sarrin, said she has been buying medicine from outside the hospital for three days, though she expected free medical services.
Issa called on the hospital administrators to provide medicines for free, as she cannot afford to buy them from pharmacies.
She estimated what she has paid for medicines at 10,000 or 15,000 Syrian ponds (SYP).
The capacity of northern and eastern Syria is very limited in comparison with the population and the needs of the region, according to the Health Board in the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES).
In February, co-chair of the Health Board in AANES Jiwan Mustafa said in an interview with North Press that “the aid that WHO is providing for north and east Syria “is unfair because it relies on reports politicized for the Syrian regime.”
In January 2020, the UN Security Council closed Tel Kocher (al-Yarubiyah) border crossing between Syria and Iraq in a Russian-Chinese veto.
UN agencies and relief organizations previously used this crossing to deliver humanitarian aid to northeast Syria.
The UN is required to ask Syrian government’s permission to transfer the aid to northeastern Syria, “but it often refuses to grant or delays permission,” according to Human Rights Watch.
Rightful complaints and criticism
Kobani Hospital Director Bozan Sheikh Bakr said the shortage of medicines and their unavailability in the hospital started four months ago because of the lack of medicine provided by the hospital’s supporters.
Kobani Hospital used to deliver medicines from the Medical Relief Organization and Health Board in AANES, whom are considered the hospital’s partners, according to the hospital administrator.
“The doctors had to deliver the patients prescriptions in order to buy medicines and supplies from private pharmacies,” Sheikh Bakr added.
He described people’s complaints of the shortage of medicines on social media as “righteous,” as the medicines were not really available.
“On Tuesday, Medical Relief provided us with amount of medicines, mostly in liquid form, instead of hospital emergency medical equipment,” he referred.
He called on organizations working in the health field to provide support and care for the centers providing free health services for residents, adding that patients need medicines, bandages, and surgical supplies amid the majority of the region’s population being affected by the collapse of the Syrian pound.