MSF says Jordan’s stability facilitates quality care for patients

AMMAN — Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Amman seeks to upgrade its medical services for war-wounded patients in the region in a new setup that will be launched soon, according to Marc Schakal, MSF head of mission in Jordan and Iraq.

Schakal told The Jordan Times on Monday that the new setup entails increasing bed capacity and allowing the organisation to perform “better and additional” surgeries that could not be done before for patients from Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Palestine.

MSF will also increase bed capacity from 48 to 72 and will provide three operating theatres equipped with advanced equipment. It will also feature advanced air conditioning, sterilisation and infection control facilities to reduce possibilities of infections, the official said.

Schakal noted that the MSF project in Amman is one of its biggest projects, as Jordan enjoys stability and offers the space and resources to offer quality care for patients.

A total of 165 Jordanians with various specialisations work in the project in Amman, he added.

The organisation is currently finalising administrative procedures with local health authorities to inaugurate the new MSF premises, which is a floor at Al Mowasa Hospital in the capital’s Marka neighbourhood, according to Schakal. 

Medical personnel working at the MSF project in Amman perform reconstructive surgery and provide rehabilitation services for patients through physiotherapy, he said, highlighting the importance of mental health support to patients.

“It is very difficult sometimes for patients to accept their injuries; some have lost an important functionality in their daily lives and some are disfigured,” Schakal said, noting that the MSF psychosocial support aims to help them accept and live with their injuries and rejoin society in their home countries.

MSF also offers educational activities to children benefiting from the project in Amman.

“It is not to replace their school education, but it is a way to keep their mental and intellectual capacities active,” the official said.

MSF missions in Palestine and Yemen follow up on the patients for at least a year when they return from Jordan, he added, while the organisation coordinates with a network of doctors in Iraq to send and receive patients.

Almost 600 patients, who have been discharged from the hospital in Amman, are still under follow-up programmes in Yemen, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, Schakal said.

“In Amman we have an average of 200 to 220 patients that undergo surgery and receive physiotherapy and mental health services,” he said, and around 30 surgeries are on hold, to be performed in the new setup, in addition to some 300 patients waiting in their home countries to be admitted at the Amman premises.

In Irbid, 80km north of Amman, the MSF project, which is hosted by the Specialty Hospital, focuses more on improving the maternal health of vulnerable women. 

“Our main objective is to provide access of maternity and delivery in good conditions for vulnerable women… We have been able to develop surgical capacities for complicated deliveries in a facility of 20 maternity and nine neonatology beds,” Schakal said, noting that the majority of beneficiaries are Syrian women.

The project in Irbid has so far received some 350 admissions in maternity and deals with 250 to 300 deliveries every month, in addition to offering counselling to pregnant women before delivery and building bridges with other organisations in the governorate to promote awareness on pregnancy health, newborns and breastfeeding.

Last November, the Irbid project started offering psychosocial health services.

“Psychosocial support initially meant to target the Syrian children… but we understood quickly that the mental health of the children is also linked to the mental availability of their mothers,” Schakal noted.

Around half of the patients who benefit from MSF services in Jordan are Syrians, 25 to 30 per cent are Iraqis, while the rest are Yemenis and Palestinians, he said.

In a meeting on Sunday, MSF International President Joanne Liu briefed representatives of local and regional media outlets on the situation in Syria and Yemen as well as the organisation’s work in fighting Ebola.

Describing the situation in Syria as “the biggest humanitarian crisis of the hour”, Liu said MSF staff has no presence in Syria anymore, as the organisation’s role is currently limited to providing “very minimal” aid compared to the needs through a network that delivers aid to the government and the opposition.

“MSF was never granted authorisation from officials to work in Syria,” she said, citing a case of abduction of a member of the organisation’s staff in January 2014. 

The organisation’s centres in Yemen’s Sanaa and Aden are “increasing their capacities right now” to respond to the current situation, with MSF centres receiving over 180 patients in the past few days.

Commenting on Ebola, the official noted that it was only last week that the number of cases per week dropped below 100 since the beginning of 2015, noting that the challenge is to reach “zero cases”.

Since it started operating in Jordan in 2006, the MSF Amman Reconstructive Surgery project received over 3,630 cases, including those who returned for additional surgical stages.  

The France-based non-profit medical and humanitarian organisation says it provides free medical care assistance to communities affected by natural disasters, armed conflicts and disease outbreaks.

A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 and the King Hussein Foundation Humanitarian Leadership Prize in 2004, MSF provides its service in 19 national offices and an international headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.