In a factsheet published yesterday, the IRC added that since the onset of the conflict, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has documented and verified 601 attacks out of more than 1,380 reported attacks, at least 350 of which were on health facilities.

“Syria has accounted for 25% of all recorded killings of health workers in conflict areas in the past 5 years.”

Concerning the impact on the health system, the IRC pointed out that out of the almost 1,800 available public health centers, 45% were not fully functioning as of September 2021. It is also estimated that over 50% of physicians have left northeast Syria.

Also, 65% of families in northeastern Syria since the start of 2021 reported that they faced difficulties accessing health care, according to interviews conducted by the IRC.

The IRC’s interviews in 2020 indicated that almost half of clients and patients in Aleppo and Idlib in northwestern Syria said they were afraid to access medical care for fear of an attack.

The factsheet came up with a set of recommendations including increasing humanitarian access, funding health care system sufficiently, emphasizing the importance of adherence to the International Humanitarian Law and ensuring accountability, and finally strengthening monitoring and reporting.

“With the international community failure to prevent the destruction of the health infrastructure, which resulted in the collapse of Syrian’s healthcare system and left millions of internally displaced people (IDPs) in desperate need of medical assistance, the overall access to healthcare services is now more urgent than ever,” the IRC concluded.

Reporter's code: 50101