Doha, Qatar: Under a project to support the health system in northwestern Syria, the representation office of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in Turkiye continues to provide health services for the most vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) and host community in remote areas of northern Syria, with a total of over 250,000 beneficiaries so far.
The project aims at providing maternal and child health (MCH) services, acute malnutrition treatment, psychological support, and basic medications for free, thus helping to save lives and reduce morbidity/mortality rates.
It involves deploying eight mobile medical clinics, each comprising one pediatrician, one nurse, one midwife, one nutrition technician, two nutritionists, one mental health gap action programme (mhGAP) doctor, two mental health professionals, and one pharmacist.
The mobile clinics are deployed to IDP camps in remote and underserved areas, as well as some health centres with reduced capacity due to lack of funding.
Their services include public health, pediatrics, reproductive health, mhGAP consultations, and free-of-charge treatment/medications.
To control acute malnutrition, the mobile clinics offer early detection, treatment, and prevention services for children under five, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. They also promote awareness messages about reproductive health, mental health, infant and child nutrition in emergencies, and infections such as COVID-19 and cholera.
The doctors enhance the referral and follow-up system, by referring the patients in need of advanced medical care to hospitals and specialised centres, ensuring their access to the right health care services, and following up with them even after the delivery of service.
