Maternity Hospital in Dire State

Syria Media Report 20-Jun-08

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Friday, 20 June, 2008

Maternity Hospital in Dire State

Syria Media Report 20-Jun-08

The obstetrics hospital in Damascus is unsanitary, understaffed and infested with vermin, and needs a complete renovation, the Kassioun newspaper reported on June 15.

The Communist Party paper reported that there are cockroaches everywhere – in the nursery, near medicines and on bedsheets. Rats have been spotted as well.

The hospital, which is located in the city centre of the city, suffers from a severe shortage of nurses.

Its nursery is only sterilised once a day, and there are no facilities for sterilising equipment and staff clothing. The heating system stopped working four years ago, and the building also gets hot in summer.

The newspaper questioned why the maternity hospital had not been repaired and blamed officials for neglecting it.

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