Raqqa Has Severe Shortage in Medical Specialties – Union of Doctors
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – An official in the Union of Doctors of North and East Syria, branch of Raqqa, a city in north Syria, said on Wednesday that the city was facing a shortage in several medical specialties.
The Union of Doctors in Raqqa is one of the civil society organizations that works as a link between the laws of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the society.
With many doctors leaving the city, due to the long years of war, to other Syrian cites or abroad, the medical sector has been incredibly affected in Raqqa.
Farhad Jumaan, head of the Union in Raqqa, said that the city suffered from a shortage of doctors in some specialties and lack of them in others.
The city has only three ophthalmologists, three neurosurgeons, one anesthesiologist, and one pathologist, “a very small number compared to the population density in Raqqa and its countryside,” according to Jumaan.
The city of Raqqa also lacks an oncologist, forcing patients to go to other Syrian cities in case of need for medical diagnoses of oncology, he added to North Press.
“The number of doctors in the city and its countryside exceeds 600, which is a sufficient number compared to the population, but the absence of some specialties impedes the treatment of specific diseases,” the head of the Union noted.