Health services are no longer functioning in the Syrian city of Idlib after a series of airstrikes on key hospitals damaged intensive care units and specialised services, doctors said.
At least two intensive care patients have died because of power and oxygen shortages caused by the airstrikes, according to the rescue group White Helmets, and hospitals have had to evacuate patients or move them into basements.
The healthcare services struck in the past few days include the Ibn Sina children’s hospital and the Maternity Children’s hospital run by medical charity Syrian American Medical Society (Sams). The White Helmets said Idlib University hospital, the National hospital and the health directorate were also hit.
Regime attacks on the city have intensified in the past week since rebels launched a surprise offensive that has allowed them to capture the entire Idlib province and the key city of Aleppo.
Dr Muhammad Firas Al-Hamdo, a paediatrician at the Maternity and Children’s hospital, said he could not see or hear after a large explosion shattered the hospital’s windows.
“I felt my way through the emergency exits to the ground floor, I was terrified,” said Hamdo. “[Staff and patients] gathered on the underground floors of the hospital, all of us with blurred vision.”
Hamdo said that the strike on the maternity hospital led to power being cut and the hospital’s equipment malfunctioning.
“This led to the death of two in the intensive care unit as a result of the power outage and oxygen outage,” he said.
Sams said a hospital it operated in Idlib was also hit by an airstrike on Monday, which caused structural damage but no injuries, as staff had been working underground since violence escalated last week.
Sams said it had to abandon all but emergency treatment at the nine facilities it worked at and had evacuated US volunteer medics.
“Hospitals, schools, and civilians are not targets of war. We all must stand up for common decency and prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable, regardless of which side of the frontline they find themselves,” said Sams’ president, Dr Mufaddal Hamadeh.
Dr Sidra Daboul, an anaesthesiologist at al-Shifa hospital, which specialises in treating heart conditions, also said that staff had to be evacuated after a nearby explosion shattered the windows.
“Today, we were put totally out of service. There are only emergency paramedic services to treat airstrike victims and evacuate them from the city,” she said.
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, the group Physicians for Human Rights has documented at least 604 attacks on healthcare facilities that have killed at least 949 workers. All but 60 were linked to Syrian regime or allied forces.
There were airstrikes across Idlib on Monday, killing at least 18 people, said the White Helmets.
