Damascus: With generous funding from the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs' Zakat Affairs Department, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched a new humanitarian project to provide emergency dialysis services in Syria, with a view to backing and sustaining life-saving medical care for thousands of patients with kidney failure.
Under the project, 80 hospitals and specialized centers across Syria will be provided with more than 70,000 dialysis kits, serving 3,000 patients, with each patient receiving three sessions per week for two months. Kits contain dialysis and solutions, blood transfusion tubes, dialysis filters, medical needles, and sterilization supplies.
Head of QRCS's representation office in Turkiye, Mazen Abdullah, said: "This project represents a vital step to ensure the continuity of dialysis sessions for patients in Syria. Any interruption of service can be life-threatening. We at QRCS fully coordinate with our local and international partners to ensure the timely delivery of medical supplies to the target hospitals and centers. I would like to sincerely thank the Zakat Affairs Department for its generous funding of this project, which reflects Qatar's unwavering commitment to supporting the Syrian people and alleviating their suffering, amid the difficult humanitarian conditions they are experiencing."
QRCS personnel are applying a strict supply and distribution process to meet the quality standards of the Syrian Ministry of Health (MOH). They coordinate closely with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society (SARCS) to facilitate the delivery of dialysis kits to the target hospitals and centers. The World Health Organization (WHO) is providing technical support to identify actual needs and technical specifications for the medical supplies.
Other outcomes of the project include reduced mortality rates and health complications, stabilized basic healthcare services, and less pressure on the limited resources available. It also helps boost the patients' trust in government health care facilities and alleviate the economic burdens on their families by securing such services for free or at minimal prices.
This intervention comes at a time when dialysis facilities in Syria are facing a worsening crisis. Reports issued by the Kidney Care Committee of Syria's MOH indicate a severe shortage of medical supplies and equipment, with a critical need to secure approximately 63,000 dialysis sessions per month to meet the minimum needs. Together with the lack of over 500 dialysis machines and the need to replace 30 water treatment plants, this situation increased the suffering of the patients and their families, making them at risk of death if dialysis sessions are interrupted, even for a short period of time.
