The Syrian regime, after it controlled the governorate of Daraa in southern Syria, last September, is trying to suspend or stop the work of any institution affiliated with the opposition despite the importance of the services they offered to people.

On top of these institutions is the Tell Shihab Hospital, rural Daraa, considered as one of the most vital medical centers in the area, providing healthcare to citizens, before the Daraa Healthcare Directorate, under the regime’s government, has imposed a freeze on it and turned it into a dispensary for vaccination campaigns only.

Administratively, the hospital was bound to the city’s local council, which supervised the implementation of projects and services that organizations used to offer both medical and service-related, such as the otic clinics, the installation of solar power systems and the emergency unit, according to former a member of the local council, who refused to reveal his name for security considerations.

The hospital worked around the clock and had staff for the shift-system, in addition to ambulances, always ready and provided with all that is needed for patients’ urgent treatment as to guarantee their safety on the way to the hospital, he told Enab Baladi.

The “Doctors without Borders” had offered the hospital funding, as it provided the doctors, nurses and administrative board’s salaries, in addition to the expenditures of the logistics, such as fuel for the power generator, before the solar power system was installed, and conducting the needed maintenance.

 

Services the Hospital Used to Provide

The hospital was a destination to the injured and those affected by the Syrian regime’s shelling on the area during the opposition factions’ control, as it offered the all the needed care, while it transferred urgent cases through ambulances, provided with modern technologies, to Jordan, being close to the borders.

The hospital was known for the diverse expertise it possessed, for it recruited 20 doctors of different specialties, surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, vascular surgeons, and urologists, antistatic team, operations room and a recovery room, in addition to 40 nurses, according to crossed information from employees who worked for the hospital, which conducted dozens of surgeries every week, varying between   orthopedic, caesarian and other operations.

The hospital had a supplementary division, consisting of clinics of various specialties, where doctors offered the people free medical services, and it met a huge demand from the people given the experienced staff, free healthcare and the dispatch of medicines for free by the hospital’s pharmacy.

The Regime Refuses to Reactivate the Hospital

The Assad’s forces controlled southern Syria last September after they conducted a settlement deal with the Syrian opposition factions, amidst promises of reopening the governmental departments and the rehiring of the dismissed employees.

The people thought that the government of the Syrian regime would make use of the devices and the expertise of the hospital, allowing it to continue providing its services, as it medically covers the adjacent villages and eases some of the pressure on the Daraa National Hospital.

However, the regime’s policy is based on denying the institutions that were founded in the absence of the state, abstinence from rehiring dismissed nurses and doctors, while it stopped the hospital, in addition to the inability at supplementing the hospital with needed staff, since it insists on the non-return of the dismissed employees.