Life-Saving Health Care Services Intensified On Mosul Frontlines- UN

The United Nations has reported that, “Life-saving” health care services are being scaled up to meet the needs of more than 60,000 people near the frontlines in the eastern part of the city of Mosul in Iraq.

The Iraqi military is battling to liberate the northern city which has been in the grip of the terrorist group ISIL, also known as Daesh, for more than two years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) have been providing medical aid to eastern Mosul, marking the first time people there have received medical services since June 2014.

The two UN agencies anticipate that more than 200,000 people will need emergency health services in the coming weeks as more areas of Mosul become accessible.

They will include nearly 40,000 people who will require urgent interventions and hospital care, as well as 8,000 pregnant women who will need assistance with deliveries and newborn care.

The UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) Deputy Director in Iraq, Françoise Ghorayeb has said : "We're really pushing towards Mosul because people are not able to go out. So those who are out and in camps, we are giving services in the camps: reproductive health services, mobile clinics, reproductive health clinics and mobile delivery rooms. And with that, we give the medicines, the equipment and we train the providers. And we have also adapted our training to allow people to be very efficient and come just one day and that is because also there are security concerns.” 

UNFPA and the World Health Organization are also restoring services at the main primary health care clinic in eastern Mosul.

They have also positioned mobile medical units and delivery units to ramp up services for trauma injuries and complicated births.

SOURCE: Dianne Penn, United Nations.