10 years after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns of the current deterioration of the Haitian health system, seriously affected by the current political and economic crisis and which is now "at the edge of the abyss."

MSF stresses that health facilities, including those run by the NGO, are struggling to provide basic services due to "shortages of medicines, oxygen, blood, fuel and staff" while medical needs are important.

The NGO recalls that in 2019, "the Emergency Stabilization Center in the Martissant district of Port-au-Prince received an average of 2,450 patients per month, 10% of whom were with gunshot wounds, lacerations or other injuries caused by violence.

[...] The MSF hospital in the Drouillard district of Port-au-Prince, the only care structure in the country for severely burned people, experienced a peak in activity in September https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-28891-haiti-security-explosion-of-gas-in-les-cayes-sympathies-and-care-of-victims.html , when he admitted a total of 141 patients suffering from severe burns , mainly caused by accidents.

[...] In Delmas, where MSF runs a program for victims of sexual violence, the number of patients decreased during this period of increased violence, simply because it had become too difficult to access the establishment.

[...] In rural areas, such as Port-à-Piment where MSF supports emergency and maternal health services, the effect of the crisis on the Haitian health system is also evident: the referral hospital and the South Department blood bank closed last October after being looted, and is still not fully functional. To organize the transfer of patients in critical condition, it sometimes takes 5 hours to find a hospital that can accept them.

[...] In the north of the country where MSF was preparing to open two care facilities for victims of sexual violence, activities could not start due to the lack of fuel and access difficulties."

Faced with the worsening of this crisis, MSF has set up new projects to treat patients that the Haitian medical system cannot take care of.

In November 2019, MSF reopened a 50-bed trauma center in the Tabarre district of Port-au-Prince https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29462-haiti-crisis-msf-opens-new-hospital-specialized-in-serious-injuries.html

The NGO also reinforced its aid to the Ministry of Health by donating medical equipment and materials, rehabilitating medical structures, training the staff of the main public hospital in Port-au-Prince, as well as supporting a hospital in Port-Salut in the South department and 10 health centers throughout the country.

HL/ HaitiLibre