‘Urgent call’ for support to rebuild East Ghouta clinic serving 55,000

Opposition authorities in regime-encircled East Ghouta issued on Tuesday an “urgent call for support” to rebuild the only clinic serving 55,000 residents of the Marj district.

A barrel bomb strike destroyed the Marj Unified Clinic last Thursday.

Now medical staff transport patients every night to the nearest clinic, 13 kilometers away, “without operating the ambulances’ headlights” in order to avoid airstrikes, clinic director Doctor Mamoun, told Syria Direct’s Bahira a-Zarir on Thursday.

Doctor Mamoun declined to provide the name of the nearest clinic out of security concerns.

Q: Following the bombing of the Marj Unified Clinic earlier this week what is your plan for refurbishing the clinic?

Due to the heavy fighting and bombing in the Marj area we cannot re-build the hospital in its previous location. We are planning to re-build the hospital in a more secure location in Marj.

Now the hospital management is launching an urgent call on all humanitarian medical organizations to assist in re-building the hospital in a new location.

Q: How many people did the clinic serve and where are they receiving medical care now that the hospital is out of service?

The clinic was the only medical center serving the Marj area’s 50,000 people. The situation is critical especially for those seeking maternal or pediatric care and for the approximately 8,000 patients with chronic diseases who visit the hospital on a weekly basis.

The closest hospital to Marj is 13 kilometers away and we are forced to transport patients at night without operating the ambulances’ headlights in order to not attract airstrikes.