Rural Damascus - SANA
Two months and the Harasta National Hospital in the countryside of Damascus returns to full service according to those in charge of it, and while the National Hospital erases the traces of terrorism permanently, restoration and rehabilitation works are completed for some hospitals in Eastern Ghouta, while others are placed on the study list.
Since the liberation of the towns of Eastern Ghouta from terrorism in 2018, the Damascus Countryside Health Directorate has embarked on a plan to rehabilitate and restore hospitals in them, which number seven, according to the deputy director of Damascus countryside health, Dr. Iyad Teijan.
The directorate started two years ago, according to what Tejin explained to the SANA delegate, to rehabilitate each of the hospitals of Harasta, Kafr Batna, and Al-Maliha, and the achievement rates vary in each of them, while the hospitals of Deir Al-Asafir, Al-Nashabiyyah, Douma and Arbin are still in the study stage, as they have suffered great damage.
The Assistant Director of Health stated that the Directorate has completed the rehabilitation work of Harasta National Hospital to be put into active service during the next two months, as it is currently operating partially outpatient clinics to include later services for general, orthopedic and laparoscopic surgery, in addition to women's operations, ambulance service, radiology and laboratory, and with regard to the hospitals of Al-Maliha and Kafar Batna, the first phase of rehabilitation has ended The second phase is currently continuing, according to Teijan, who pointed out that there are difficulties facing the health sector in general in Eastern Ghouta, the most prominent of which is the continuous provision of electricity to operate the devices and the lack of health cadres working in some specialties, so it will be redistributed according to the priority needs of each region.
The percentage of damage to Eastern Ghouta hospitals due to terrorism ranged between 60 and 80 percent, according to the head of the engineering office in the Damascus Countryside Health Directorate, engineer Manal Al-Bar, who mentioned that the rehabilitation of Harasta hospital was carried out in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program at a cost of $ 2 million for construction. The devices were provided by the World Health Organization through a Japanese grant of 4 million dollars.
The first phase of the rehabilitation of Harasta Hospital included, according to the engineer Al-Barr, construction support for a number of building blocks that were subjected to burning and collapses in the columns, then the completion of the sanitary, electrical, mechanical and medical gas network works completely, noting that the building was received at the beginning of this year and now the phase of supplying modern medical devices has begun. .
Concerning Kafr Batna Hospital, Al-Bar showed that the hospital restoration work began in 2018 with a financial value of 390 million pounds, and now the civil and architectural works have ended, and the mechanical and electrical works and the delivery of the medical gas network station, whose value is estimated at 900 million pounds, is expected to be put into service at the beginning of 2022, according to the engineer Al-Bar. Douma Hospital is still in the stage of preparing the study to rebuild it to be a central hospital in the region with a capacity of 300 beds. The situation of Deir Al-Asafir, Al-Nashabiyyah and Arbin hospitals is being studied to rehabilitate them next year.
The Harasta National Hospital was established in 2001, according to its director, Dr. Ahmed Ismail, where he continued to provide services to the people of the region until the end of 2012, after which it was subjected to sabotage and theft of equipment by armed terrorist organizations.
Ismail Odeh showed work in the outpatient clinics of the hospital, which is equipped with the latest medical devices and care beds, and has expanded its capacity to 80 beds, and the health staff, including nurses, technicians, and a number of doctors and engineers began their work in it to be the official opening after about two months.
Ismail stressed the importance of the hospital returning to work, as it serves alongside Harasta the areas of Douma, Misraba, Hamouriyeh, and a number of other Ghouta towns.
Inas Svan and Rama Rashidi
