Sweida Hospital's medical imaging devices out of service for five months

The Head of the Maintenance Department at Sweida National Hospital, Engineer Ghufran Al-Hajjar, told ANHA agency: “The reason for the MRI machine’s malfunction is that it was hit by gunfire on July 14 during the bloody attack by government forces on Sweida and their storming of the hospital, which turned the hospital and its surrounding area into a battlefield.”

Regarding the possibility of repair, she noted that this was previously done through the Ministry of Health, but under the current circumstances, the repair process is stalled.

As for the CT scanner’s malfunction, the primary reason is that it was operated far beyond its capacity while treating victims of the military escalation, in addition to the problem of electricity and repeated power outages.

Currently, repair attempts are being made through local community initiatives.

These devices are essential for diagnosing diseases and injuries. Their outage increases patients’ suffering and imposes additional burdens, as it forces them to visit private centers and pay amounts ranging between 800,000 and 1.5 million Syrian pounds.

Sweida is currently isolated from the transitional government authorities, which have imposed a siege on the city and its countryside since the military escalation in mid-July. At that time, fierce clashes erupted between transitional government forces and their affiliated militants on one side, and the National Defense Forces (Druze) on the other. The conflict ended with a ceasefire under international mediation after Israeli intervention and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, in addition to cases of kidnapping, robbery, and looting of citizens’ property.

ANHA