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September 2005 |
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Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF) has started an intervention in Cité
Soleil, one of the biggest slums in Haiti’s capital city of
Port au Prince, where around 250,000 people live in a precarious
situation of poverty, violence and social instability.
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© Kevin Phelan / MSF
Haitian Red Cross arriving at MSF trauma centre with a gunshot victim
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At the end of July an MSF team visited the slum and realised that in the
whole neighbourhood only two health centres were operating, providing a
maximum of 20 consultations per day. The majority of the population living
in Cité Soleil was effectively excluded from health care, not only
because there were no functioning facilities but also, because, even if
they could leave Cité Soleil to look for care, they wouldn’t
be able to afford the fees charged in the Haitian health system. Most people
living in slums like Cité Soleil survive on less then 1 US$ per day,
in a country where a life-saving caesarean section can cost more than 300
US$.
MSF decided to support Chapi health Centre in cooperation with the staff
from the Haitian National Health System. When the MSF medical staff arrived
for the first day of consultation on 1st August 2005, more then 120 people
were standing in a long queue waiting for free medical care.
“We decided to intervene in Cité Soleil
because we found it unacceptable that a population of 250,000 people,
the size of a medium European city, caught in an epidemic of social, gang
and political violence, could be left without any health care to speak
of,” says Loris De Filippi, Head of Mission for MSF in Haiti.
“Since we started our intervention we have seen more then 2,900
patients and the number of daily consultations is still increasing. At
the moment in Chapi health centre we are providing primary health care,
paediatric consultations and mother and child care”.
Three weeks into its work in Citè Soleil, MSF decided to take
on the rehabilitation of the only hospital located in the slum. It had
been abandoned for more than a year.
“When we arrived in Choscal hospital everything was in the same
condition as the day it was deserted because of insecurity in August 2004.
In a few days we were able to start consultations and surgery,“
continues Loris De Filippi. “The hospital was reopened on 23rd August
and a few hours later we received our first patient, a pregnant woman
in need of a caesarean section“.
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© Kevin Phelan / MSF
Patients waiting to receive follow up care at the MSF center
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MSF is working 24 hours a day in Choscal hospital providing health care
and surgery. Today around 40 patients can be hospitalised, and the objective
is now to have all the hospital wards, including the paediatricward, rehabilitated
within weeks. During the first 9 days there have been an average of 80
consultations per day, 17 surgical interventions (including 8 caesarean
sections and 2 wounded by gunshots) and 54 deliveries. About 20 patients
per day attended the emergency room.
MSF has been working in Haiti since 1991 providing
assistance to various communes in the Artibonite department, particularly
focusing on primary health care, surgery, maternal and reproductive
health. Last September, after the tropical storm “Jeanne”
hit the island, MSF started an emergency intervention in the city
of Gonaives.
In December 2004, MSF opened the 56-bed trauma centre at St. Joseph's
Hospital in Port au Prince to provide free emergency medical and
surgical services to the growing number of people injured by violent
acts who had little or no access to care. Since opening, MSF teams
have treated nearly 4,500 patients — 1,550 for violence-related
injuries, including 1,132 gunshot victims. Half of those treated
for such injuries are women, children, or elderly. MSF also offers
post-surgical physiotherapy at a nearby rehabilitation centre.
Since April 2005 MSF has provided free basic health care in Decayette,
with a special focus on women and children. The MSF team carries
out about 120 consultations per day. |
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