Supporting Alamal hospital - orthopedic surgical hospital Syria is soon entering its ninth year of violent and devastating conflict, with the situation in the Northern provinces dramatically worsening and hospitals frequently becoming targets of attacks. Moreover, with several hundred thousand people reportedly displaced and one of the largest influxes of IDPs reported in the region, the situation is becoming increasingly acute as health facilities are greatly overstrained and medical resources are missing. A potential COVID19 outbreak would have to accelerate devastating effects and further amplify the dire needs in the health sector while putting a great risk on the continuation of essential interventions. As of now, secondary healthcare services fall over 60% short of the benchmark (for a more detailed account see the needs assessment section).

This project aims to provide lifesaving and limb-saving health care services to more than 150,000 individuals (indirect beneficiaries). This will be done through the provision of out-patient clinics, an emergency department, and surgical operating rooms at Alamal Hospital. This project will complete the infrastructure of the hospital facilities, contracting the medical staff, and offering both diagnostic and therapeutic supplies, to fill the gap in secondary health care in the area of orthopedics, and offer a specialized center with an on-call vascular surgeon. This will ultimately result in a decreasing rate of amputation and the complication of trauma. Aligned to the first objective of the health cluster for 2020 of ensuring the continuity of essential healthcare services, especially during the COVID19 pandemic, this project is addressing this objective with orthopedic treatments being identified as a greatly needed essential healthcare service and is also in line with the priority workshop result in early 2020 which a decision to focus on investing in the development of existing health facility than creating new ones. In the face of a potential outbreak of COVID-19, orthopedic patients will have even harder access to the dignified treatment needed and with their conditions gradually deteriorating, this will have severe negative future consequences in terms of hospital facilities and medical equipment but also in terms of the affected peoples’ self-reliance, resilience, and economic participation. The affected groups risk being further pushed into vulnerability and marginalization. 

This overall objective of this project is to support “Al Amal Hospital” to improve the accessibility of essential orthopedic and trauma specialized health services in Salqin sub-district for both IDPs and the host community. The specific objectives of the project are to:
(1) Decrease the morbidity and mortality among the trauma and orthopedic cases in the sub-district of Salqin
(2) Maintain the hospital services available during the COVID19 pandemic and ensure filling the gap in the area.
(3) Strengthen the infrastructure of the facility to include the essential equipment and supplies.
(4) Building the technical capacity of health workers. 

About 23,285 direct and 150,000 indirect beneficiaries are targeted by the intervention, whereby at least 40% of direct beneficiaries will be women, 7% will be people with disabilities. he geographical scope of the project will be Salqin- Harim- Idlib where more than 300K individuals are currently residing. 

The intervention logic assumes that improving the accessibility to life-saving and life-sustaining secondary healthcare and the capacity and infrastructure of hospitals in the field of orthopedic and trauma in Salqin sub-district will contribute to the reduction of mortality and morbidity rates and contribute to communities living self-reliant and dignified lives, while sustainably freeing up limited hospital and health care capacities in the long run. 

Name of the facility:
Al Amal orthopedic hospital: [HeRAMS CODE: G0703142]