- Title: Yemen's health system on brink of 'collapse'
- Date: 28th December 2016
- Summary: SANAA, YEMEN (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF THE REPUBLICAN TEACHING HOSPITAL AUTHORITY VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN AND OUT OF HOSPITAL ENTRANCE KIDNEY DIALYSIS CENTRE AT THE REPUBLICAN HOSPITAL / SIGN READING (Arabic): "KIDNEY DIALYSIS UNIT" VARIOUS OF PATIENTS LYING ON BEDS RECEIVING DIALYSIS TREATMENT WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION REPRESENTATIVE IN YEMEN SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST FLAG OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WHO REPRESENTATIVE IN YEMEN, AHMED SHADWEL, SAYING: "If the current situation continues, and there is even less funding, the health care system will collapse completely. The collapse of the health system will be detrimental to the country. It took us more than 50 years to build it and train people." WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION LOGO (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WHO REPRESENTATIVE IN YEMEN, AHMED SHADWEL, SAYING: "So far, about 102 medical centres and hospitals and health care institutions have been affected by the war. Some (11) eleven medical workers (were killed) and about 16 ambulances (were destroyed)." VARIOUS OF PATIENTS RECEIVING KIDNEY DIALYSIS TREATMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) KIDNEY DIALYSIS PATIENT, ABDULLAH ALI HASAN, SAYING: "Generally speaking, the sick across the country don't have access to treatment; there is no decent health care. We can't even afford to pay for the taxi ride (to the hospital). We have nothing." PEOPLE WALKING IN THE HOSPITAL HALLWAY (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DEPUTY HEAD OF REPUBLICAN HOSPITAL, AHMED AL HAIFI, SAYING: "The situation now is critical. There is a major lack of medicines and medical equipment, of general anaesthetics, and of everything else associated with providing the absolute minimum care." ENTRANCE TO THE NEO-NATAL UNIT AT THE HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF PREMATURE BABIES IN INCUBATORS PREMATURE BABY SLEEPING NURSE CARING FOR A SLEEPING PREMATURE BABY PREMATURE BABY SLEEPING IN AN INCUBATOR VARIOUS OF MONITORS AND BABY IN INCUBATOR
- Embargoed: 12th January 2017 13:54
- Keywords: Yemen health hospital medicine crisis
- Location: SANAA, YEMEN
- City: SANAA, YEMEN
- Country: Yemen
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0015ESPQ39
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Yemen's health care system is on the verge of collapse, the country's World Health Organization representative has warned.
Ahmed Shadwel said dozens of health care facilities and hospitals have either been destroyed or forced to shut down due to a severe lack of resources.
"If the current situation continues, and there is even less funding, the health care system will collapse completely. The collapse of the health system will be detrimental," WHO representative Shadwel said.
According to the World Health Organization, out of some 3,500 health facilities across the country, less than half are fully functional, more than 500 have been forced to shut down. Those still open are working under difficult, if not impossible, conditions.
Nearly two years of war between a Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-allied Houthi movement has left about two-thirds of Yemenis without access to even the most basic health care as the country slips further into an already severe humanitarian crisis.
According to the United Nations, more than half of Yemen's 28 million are also "food insecure", with seven million of them enduring hunger.
Already, eight out of 10 children are stunted by malnutrition and every 10 minutes a child dies due to preventable diseases, U.N. agency figures show.
At the Republican hospital in Sanaa, the patients receiving life-saving treatment in the kidney dialysis and neonatal units are among the lucky few and medical staff describe the situation there as 'critical'.
Even before the escalation of fighting in March last year that has so far killed more than 10,000 people, Yemen experienced widespread poverty, food shortages and a lack of health services.
Now Yemen's health system is in dire straits, as the young, sick and poor are the first to fall through the cracks.
"Generally speaking, the sick across the country don't have access to treatment; there is no decent health care. We can't even afford to pay for the taxi ride (to the hospital). We have nothing," said Kidney dialysis patient Abdullah Ali Hasan.
Medicines are in short supply, resources are limited, and the health care infrastructure is crumbling.
The U.N. estimates that 18.8 million people need some form of humanitarian aid but it struggles to deliver supplies, partly because of the war and partly due to a lack of funding. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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