Tag Archives: healthcare

Syria: Deadly sectarian violence displaces thousands in Sweida; healthcare attacked

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Since 13 July, around 176,000 people have been displaced from Sweida,  according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Mostly migrating to neighbouring Dar’a and Rural Damascus governorates, civilians are fleeing violent clashes between Bedouin tribal fighters, Syrian caretaker government forces and Druze militias.

Meanwhile in the north of the country, local authorities reported that a large explosion struck an ammunition depot in Ma’arrat Tasmarin, in Idleb Governorate, on Thursday, reportedly killing six people and injuring at least 140 others.

Although Syrian Civil Defense teams attempted to evacuate people and transfer the injured for medical care, secondary explosions in the vicinity significantly hindered emergency response efforts.

Attacks on healthcare

In Sweida, health facilities are under immense strain, with staff operating in extremely difficult conditions, while access to healthcare remains a challenge.

As WHO confirmed five attacks on healthcare, including the killing of at least two doctors, the organization also reported on the obstructions to and targeting of ambulances as well as the temporary occupation of hospitals.

“We know healthcare must never be a target. In fact, health facilities, patients and health workers must be actively protected,” said Dr. Christina Bethke, WHO acting representative in Syria, speaking from Damascus to journalists at the UN in Geneva on Friday.

Dr. Bethke said that Sweida’s hospitals are facing shortages of staff, electricity, water, and basic supplies, with the morgue at the city’s main hospital reaching capacity earlier this week.

“Ensuring that doctors, nurses and supplies can reach people safely is not just vital for saving lives, it is a responsibility under international law that all sides must uphold,” Dr. Bethke said.

Limited access

As different groups control different pathways, poor security conditions are restricting access to Sweida, limiting the ability of the UN and partners to deliver aid to those affected by the violence.

While access to the city remains limited, WHO has been able to deliver vital supplies to health facilities in Dar’a and Damascus governorates, including trauma supplies, essential medicine and hospital support.

In response to rising violence both in Sweida and in the north, UN humanitarian coordinator in Syria Adam Abdelmoula  launched an extension of the 2025 humanitarian appeal, which is currently less than 12 per cent funded. 

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More Gazans killed trying to get food, healthcare near to ‘full disaster’

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 “We are walking the fine grey line between operational capacity and full disaster, every day,” said Dr Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer, speaking from the enclave.

The veteran UN medic’s comments came amid new reports on Tuesday morning that more Palestinians had been killed trying to access food, this time near an aid distribution site in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The mass casualty event left “hundreds of casualties, completely overwhelming Nasser Medical Complex” in Khan Younis, said WHO’s Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dr Rik Peeperkorn.

No-go zone

Across Gaza today, health services are “barely available” and difficult to access, Dr Peeperkorn said, since more than 80 per cent of Gaza’s territory is under evacuation orders.

“The shrinking humanitarian space makes every health activity way more difficult than the previous day,” Dr Gargavanis added.

Nasser Medical Complex is the largest referral hospital in Gaza and the only remaining main hospital in Khan Younis. It is situated within the evacuation zone announced by the Israeli military on 12 June.

The nearby Al-Amal Hospital – operated by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – continues to provide services to patients already there, but it is unable to admit anyone else because of ongoing military operations.

“It is what we call a completely minimal functional hospital,” Dr Peeperkorn said.

Deadly impact of fuel shortages

Only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are currently partially functional, medical supplies are critically low and no fuel has entered the Strip for more than 100 days.

The latest mass casualty event is just the latest involving Gazans trying to access aid amid ongoing severe restrictions placed on the amount of aid allowed into the Strip by Israel.

On Monday, more than 200 patients arrived at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Al Mawasi – the highest number received by the facility in a single mass casualty incident. Of that number, 28 patients were reportedly declared dead, WHO’s Dr Peeperkorn said.

Just one day earlier, on 15 June, the same hospital received at least 170 patients, who reportedly had been trying to access a food distribution site.

“The recent food distribution initiatives by non-UN actors every time result in mass casualty incidents,” WHO’s Dr Gargavanis insisted.

Private aid plan fallout

Since late May, the UN and humanitarian partners have been sidelined in Gaza as a new aid distribution model backed by Israel and the United States began operations under the framework of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which uses private military contractors. 

The WHO trauma surgeon highlighted a “constant correlation” between the locations of food distribution spots and the mass casualty incidents in Rafah, in Khan Younis and along the Netzarim corridor.

Asked about the type of injuries sustained by those seeking aid, and who is responsible, Dr Garavanis stressed that WHO is not a forensic agency.

“We’re not in a position to clearly identify from the nature of the injury” who has caused it, he said. “What we can say, though, is that we’re talking of gunshot wound injuries, and we’re talking of very few incidents of shrapnel injuries.”

The UN has repeatedly warned that the new aid distribution system does not meet humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality. The global body has also called for aid restrictions to be lifted.

Dr Peeperkorn insisted that the WHO must be facilitated to move supplies into Gaza in a cost-effective manner “via all possible routes” to prevent further shutdowns of medical services. He said that 33 WHO trucks with supplies are waiting at Al Arish in Egypt to be granted passage into the enclave, with another 15 standing by in the occupied West Bank.

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Syrians face staggering needs amid insecurity and healthcare crisis

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Wrapping up a visit to the country, Edem Wosornu, who heads operations and advocacy for the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said that she could “feel the momentum for change” on the ground after years of suffering and hardship under the Assad regime ended with its overthrow last December.

But formidable challenges remain as 16.5 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance and protection, and needs are “staggering”.

Speaking from Gaziantep, a humanitarian hub in Türkiye just across the Syrian border, Ms. Wosornu noted an “encouraging trend of returns” since last December.

Over one million internally displaced people have come back to their areas of origin, she said, and more than half a million refugees have returned from neighbouring countries according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Devastated homes and opportunities

The OCHA official cited insecurity, damaged homes, inadequate services, lack of livelihood opportunities and the threat of unexploded ordnance as “key barriers” preventing people returning.

“People say, first and foremost they want security,” she stressed.

While the level of hostilities in the country has subsided, Ms. Wosornu said, localized tensions and clashes remain a “major concern”.

Remnants of heavy fighting pose a continued threat to civilians, said Dr Altaf Musani, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s Director of Health Emergencies.

He pointed to at least 909 casualties from unexploded ordnance since December 2024, including some 400 deaths – a majority of them women and children.

“We’re starting to see the admission rates and consultation rates in emergency rooms increase… Children and women, going about their daily life, trying to get water, trying to get food, trying to rebuild,” are walking through agricultural land, roads and rivers where unexploded munitions could be hiding, he said.

Camp residents at highest risk

Diseases, such as cholera and acute watery diarrhoea, are spreading, Dr. Musani said, stressing that more than 1,444 suspect cases of cholera and seven associated deaths have been recorded.

“This is particularly in Latakia and Aleppo, particularly around displacement camps,” he said.

“We know that when cholera gets hold in camps, it can serve as a brush fire, increasing both morbidity and mortality.”

The WHO official warned that more than 416,000 children in Syria are at risk from severe malnutrition and that more than half of children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition are not receiving treatment.

“From a public health standpoint, we need to be able to watch that risk and intervene and save those children,” he said.

Boys play in an informal camp in Syria.

Pregnancy dangers

Dr. Musani also noted that half of the maternity hospitals in northwest Syria have suspended operations since September 2024 owing to financial cuts, which humanitarians are “witnessing globally” but which are “really apparent” in Syria.

Underfunding of the humanitarian operation in Syria is already severe. Earlier this week, OCHA’s Coordination Division head, Ramesh Rajasingham, told the Security Council that out of the $2 billion required for the UN and its partners to reach eight million of the most vulnerable people from January through June 2025, only 10 per cent has been received.

The country’s cash-strapped health facilities face a lack of skilled workers and equipment, said WHO’s Dr. Musani. The war had pushed some 50 to 70 per cent of the health workforce to leave the country in search of other opportunities, and the health infrastructure is in dire need of investment.

The WHO official noted that for the health system – the “heartbeat of the nation” – the sanctions imposed on the country during the Assad regime had resulted in a lack of much-needed upgrades, compromising the purchase of new MRI machines, CT scanners, laboratory equipment and software upgrades.

Over the past two weeks, both the United States and the European Union have moved to lift the sanctions. OCHA’s Ms. Wosornu expressed hope that thanks to this development “we’ll see the impact on goods and services, on the cost of doing operations in the country, on the ability to move goods quicker into the country”.

But “it will take time”, she added. “I believe the people of Syria are hopeful that this will change their everyday lives.”

IT Department conducts searches on some prominent business groups in Maharashtra

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The Income Tax Department carried out a search & seizure action on 25.08.2022 on two groups engaged in the business of sand mining, sugar manufacturing, road construction, healthcare, running of medical college etc. The search action covered more than 20 premises spread over Solapur, Osmanabad, Nashik & Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra.

During the course of the search operation, a large number of incriminating evidences, in the form of hard copy documents and digital data have been found and seized. These evidences reveal various modus-operandi of tax evasion adopted by the group including booking of bogus expenses, undisclosed cash sales, unexplained loans/ credit entries, etc.

In case of the group engaged in sand mining and sugar manufacturing, documentary evidences of unaccounted cash sales of sugar exceeding Rs. 15 crore have been found & seized. The search action has revealed that the group has introduced its unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans in its books of accounts. Several lenders to the group, as well as promoters of the group have admitted that unaccounted cash generated by the group exceeding Rs. 10 crore was routed in its books of account in this manner.

Evidences of capital gains of about Rs. 43 crore on sale of assets by a non-filer corporate entity have also been seized.

In the other group engaged in the business of healthcare and running of medical college, as also road construction, evidences of undisclosed cash receipts representing capitation fee and refund of salary and stipend paid to the doctors/PG students have been found. Moreover, evidences regarding booking of bogus expenses and contractual payments etc. have been found & seized. Preliminary estimates of such undisclosed income of the group is to the tune of Rs. 35 crore.

Income-Tax

So far, the search action has led to detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs. 100 crore.  Further, undisclosed assets of more than Rs. 5 crore have also been seized.

Further investigations are in progress.

Increasing Public Expenditure on Healthcare

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The Twelfth Five Year Plan projected to increase total public fund, plan and non-plan on core health to 1.87 per cent of GDP by the end of Twelfth Plan. The National Health Policy, 2017 envisages increasing public expenditure on health to 2.5% of GDP in a time bound manner by 2025.

As per WHO Global Health Expenditure database 2014, the expenditure on healthcare for BRICS is China (3%), the Russian Federation (4%), Brazil (4%) and South Africa (4%) of Gross Domestic Product. The Government spending on healthcare in India as a percentage of GDP has increased from 1.16% in 2004-05 (Actual) to 1.4% in 2016-17 (BE) as per Economic Survey.

The allocation of funds for health sector is based inter-alia, on the availability of resources and competing claims on these resources. An increase in economic growth makes available increased resources for funding the health sector. In addition to this, availability of overall resources, past utilization, requirements and absorptive capacity inter-alia guide the allocations to the health sector.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Smt Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha here today.

New Born Declared Dead Comes to Life Just Before Funeral

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In a repetition of several such incidents where the patients are declared dead without proper checks, a hospital in Warangal, Telangana declared a four-day-old baby dead on Sunday but when she started moving at the cremation grounds, parents realised the faux pas but in vain.

The baby delivered at a private hospital weighed just 450 grams and was brought to MGM hospital in Warangal for neonatal intensive care unit, which has ventilator and oxygen facilities.
On Sunday morning at 11.30 am, the doctor on duty declared the baby dead and issued a death certificate too when parents decided to take the body to the cremation ground for the final rites.

When they found the baby moving, they rushed back to the same hospital where doctors again declared the baby dead, causing commotion and outrage among the relatives for their negligence in declaring the baby dead in the first instance and thus denying proper care. The parents said the doctors failed to properly check the ECG to determine the baby’s condition before declaring the baby dead.

Two weeks ago, in Delhi Safdarjung Hospital too a newborn, weighing around 460 gm was not revived after an abortion citing international norm but the baby was found alive later. Doctors who said, “It was technically an abortion because the delivery took place in the 20th week of pregnancy. Internationally, the norm says such children should not be revived,” failed to explain how they missed that the child was still breathing.

I could have buried my child if he hadn’t started kicking from inside the plastic packet,” said the father who had filed a complaint of negligence with the police.