At Damascus pediatric hospital, Syrian children treated at heavy prices

Syrian families who admit their children to the Damascus University Children Hospital (the state-owned educational hospital that used to provide medical care for ill children for nominal fees) have to pay 20,000 Syrian pounds ($7.96) per day instead of SYP 3,500 for a premium single room. As for a double room, the family or caregiver has to pay SYP 15,000 ($5.97) instead of SYP 3,000. This comes amid the ongoing deterioration of the country’s medical sector.

Furthermore, 10% of the number of infant incubators has been allocated to be rented for SYP 25,000 for an incubator a day, according to a decision issued by the General Authority for Children's Hospital, Athr Press reported on Wednesday.

An employee at the hospital confirmed the hike in prices to Jusoor Post via phone, noting that the newly released costs do not include the expenditure for other medical services of providing medicines and food or conducting tests and medical imaging.

The hospital is the only medical facility specializing in pediatric diseases in Syria, according to the official website of the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education. “It receives children and premature babies from all governorates and provides medical consultations and treatment services,” the website added.

The decision does not reveal the reasons behind such skyrocketing prices. However, the Director-General of the Children's Hospital in Damascus, Rostom Makiya, in an interview with Tishreen newspaper on January 2, warned of a severe shortage of the number of doctors in the hospital, in addition to the lack of therapeutic drugs and the disruption of a number of basic equipment.

He revealed that the great shortage in the number of specialized doctors and for all medical departments is attributed to the high rate of resignations and the death of some doctors from coronavirus. He also said the hospital was suffering a decrease in nurses and a shortage in medical supply.

Syria’s bad economic situation has pushed medical personnel to find better places in hospitals abroad. In a report published by Enab Balady newspaper, some nurses revealed the miserable situation in the hospital where neglect prevails. Despite this, the hospital “remains the only place to ease the family’s high costs of the private hospitals.”

“In Syria, the situation went from bad to worse. Some doctors escaped, while others who took the line with revolutionaries were killed,” said M.S., a Syrian resident in Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. He noted, in comments to Jusoor Post, that doctors in Syria could not speak up about the situation there because their mobile phones are monitored by the Syrian regime.

M.S. said that the prices set by the Damascus University Children Hospital could be unaffordable for Syrians who already live in hard times because of the skyrocketing prices not only in the health sector but also in all other sectors, especially when it comes to food and living conditions. “Even doctors there [in Damascus] are unable to escape; they are oppressed,” he continued.

“The basic necessities for a healthy, dignified life are even further out of reach for millions of people due to escalating food and fuel prices,” said Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a speech at the UN Security Council on April 26.

Syria is suffering an acute economic crisis due to “prolonged armed conflict, economic sanctions, the COVID-19 pandemic, a severe drought, deepening economic crises in neighboring Lebanon and Turkey, and the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine and associated sanctions,” said the World Bank in a report on Syria's Economic Update in April 2022.

As a result, the value of the local currency further deteriorated and led to high rates of inflation, food insecurity and poverty, the report added.

Worsening medical situation

Since the 2011 uprising, about five million Syrian children were born until March 2022, said UNICEF in a report. The neglect of the health sector and the destruction in the country over 11 years have led some diseases like meningitis, measles, and polio to re-emerge, said People in Need (PIN) in April 2022, adding that the price of medicine increased tenfold since the outbreak of the war.

The medical sector, especially in Northern Syria, is getting worse as a result of the ongoing conflicts and clashes. Clinics are overcrowded and suffer from poor sanitary conditions, PIN said in another report published in late March 2022.

“In private clinics, the cost of the simplest prescription is about SYP 20,000 (approx. $8), the cost of childbirth is about SYP 200,000 (approx. $80), and the cost of a cesarean section is about SYP 600,000 (approx. $244). Simple medical tests cost from SYP 5,000 (approx. $2) to SYP 10,000 (approx. $4). Life conditions became tough. But in our center, services are free, including medicine and tests. In addition to many new diseases, those already overcome have reappeared again. For example, polio,” said Rokan, a team leader of the Kurdish Red Crescent and one of the staff members working at PIN’s center in Syria.

M.S. sees that children should be away from such pressures and threats. “This is a national duty when it comes to treating children. Money is not all things,” he said.