Health care in Syria is “beyond catastrophic”

Hundreds of doctors are being imprisoned or killed for doing their job and tens of thousands of people are deprived of vital treatment as a result of the civil war in Syria, health workers say.

At a time when many doctors have fled or gone into hiding for fear of their lives, the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations is still trying to keep secret hospitals running on the ground, according to member Tawfik Chamaa, a Syrian exile for the past 30 years who practises medicine in Geneva.

The Swiss government is helping fund one such hospital run by the Union. Chamaa tells swissinfo.ch that the hospital is operational but in an area subject to bombings.