Tribune News Network
Doha
Under the Qatar Red Crescent Society’s (QRCS) medical convoys programme, in collaboration with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Sidra Medicine and Aspetar, a Qatari medical convoy successfully concluded its humanitarian mission in northern Syria. The initiative aimed to improve access to specialised surgical services in the region by deploying volunteering medical experts from Qatar to support the local health sector.
Led by Dr Abdullah Rashid Al-Nuaimi, a consultant urologist at HMC, the medical performed 103 major surgeries, which are typically unavailable in northern Syria, and provided medical consultations for 200 patients suffering from serious illnesses. Additionally, the convoy conducted three training workshops for 41 local doctors at hospitals in the region.
Also, the project involved capacity-building of Syrian hospitals by procuring medical equipment and surgical tools to enable them to perform advanced surgeries.
Carried out in cooperation with Idlib Health Directorate and several hospitals in the target region, these efforts helped greatly alleviate the suffering of 344 patients, in addition to 1,720 indirect beneficiaries, making a real difference in their lives.
Over the coming few months, there will be more medical convoys in different medical specialisations. QRCS pays great attention to medical convoys, already deployed to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Palestine, Somalia, Bangladesh and many other countries where conflicts and natural disasters affected the health sector and heightened the need for significant and life-saving surgeries.
In a statement, Mazin Abdullah, head of QRCS’s representation office in Turkey, said, "I am proud of the efforts by the medical delegation, who had been offering the Syrian patients excellent medical care. Over five days, we reached out to as many patients in need of surgeries as possible. Thanks to the hard work of our doctors, we had an impressive result of successfully performing dozens of complex surgeries. This medical convoy not only demonstrated the profoundly positive impact of such endeavours on people’s lives, but also helped strengthen the local medical community in northern Syria, which will translate into permanent specialized medical services in the region.”
Dr Zuhair Al-Qarrat, Idlib health director, said, "The medical convoy deployed by QRCS was two-fold. First, direct medical services were provided for patients, through complex surgeries that previously had no effective solutions. Thanks to the expertise and advanced technologies of the medical delegation, high-quality medical services were provided to improve the health conditions of the patients.”