The aid agency “Save the Children” has warned that the health system in Syria is collapsing and that children are suffering as a result of a lack of proper healthcare.
The charity organization said in a report on Monday that about 60 percent of the hospitals in Syria have been destroyed or damaged since the outbreak of the conflict three years ago and that nearly half of the doctors have left the Arab country.
It described the collapse of the health system as “horrific,” with limited medical staff struggling to treat the people injured in the conflict.
“Syria’s health system is now in such disarray that we have heard reports of doctors using old clothes for bandages and patients opting to be knocked unconscious with metal bars, because there are no anesthetics,” the report said.
The aid agency further noted that newborns have died in incubators due to power cuts, while doctors have been forced to cut off children’s limbs as they did not have the equipment to treat them.
It added that polio has now infected up to 80,000 children across Syria, while the disease had been eradicated in the country in 1995.
The organization said that over 140,000 people have lost their lives in the violence in Syria.
Save the Children asked the conflicting sides in Syria to allow freedom of access to humanitarian groups all over the country.
The Syrian government has not made any comment about the report.
The Syrian government has several times reached agreements with foreign-backed militants holding towns and villages in the country to allow humanitarian access to civilians trapped in the areas. However, militants have repeatedly violated the ceasefires.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
