Local hospital operates inside carved-out hill in northern Syria

BAYIRBUCAK, Syria – Anadolu Agency

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A hospital in the Bayırbucak area of Syria’s western province of Latakia has been providing health services inside a carved out hill after its previous locations on the ground were bombed three times in six months. 

Founded in the Bayırbucak area some five years ago, the Yamadi hospital provides services for locals from Latakia and Idlib provinces and recently moved into a carved-out hill as its original location was bombed six months ago and the two subsequent locations it moved to were also attacked. 

The executive head of the hospital, Tevfik Molla Musa, said that after the first attack the health center was moved to a tent near the Turkish border. 

“However, it was hit there too. Our ambulances were destroyed. Our personnel were injured. As a last resort, we opened a hospital underground. We carved out a mountain here and fortified it by planting trees around it. In this way it has become both a hospital and a shelter,” said Musa, adding that all construction work for the hospital was carried out by its personnel, including doctors and nurses.  

“Over the last five years, our hospital has never stopped working even for an hour … We put cement on the ground and immediately started working. In this 100-square meter area, there is a surgery room, emergency room, lab, a pharmacy and an x-ray room. Now it serves locals with 44 personnel, seven of whom are doctors,” he added.

One of the hospital’s doctors, Abu Furkan, said he has been working for four years at the hospital, which undertakes a critical duty due to the dire security situation and the lack of health centers in the area.  

“Six months ago a bomb fell onto the hospital’s building. As we were on a lower floor, nothing happened to us. But the hospital became unusable. Then we found two other places but could not escape from bombardments,” said Furkan. 

He also noted that the conditions at the facility were far from ideal. For sterilization the floors and the walls should be covered with ceramic, but due to the lack of resources they had to start operating by laying cement on the floor.   

Furkan stressed that when providing health services for those in need, the hospital does not make any discrimination based on race, religion or political view.