MSF teams are running medical projects in nine areas affected by the conflict or near the frontlines. This update  focuses on Mosul and its outskirts. For information on projects in the governorates of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Dohuk, Sulaymaniyah, Salah Al-Din, Diyala and Anbar, please refer to the June 2017 update.

Mosul

MSF started activities at a medical structure in west Mosul on 23 June. Teams are giving life-saving trauma assistance to war-wounded people fleeing the final conflict areas of the Old City, and providing maternal care to the returnee population.

A 17-bed inpatient ward opened on 20 July to help respond to the broader medical needs of this population affected by extremely limited access to healthcare. It has already admitted 10 patients. This project also offers surgery, short-term post-operative care, maternity care and  an emergency room. Staff have assisted more than 934 patients, including 255 with war-related trauma injuries and 131 births.

Al-Khansaa Teaching Hospital, East Mosul

In July, MSF began supporting east Mosul’s Al-Khansaa Teaching Hospital, a public health facility that has seen its capacity reduced from 300 to 160 beds due to damage suffered during the conflict. MSF has rehabilitated a six-bed emergency room and supported the opening of a 20-bed inpatient therapeutic feeding ward. Construction of a 20-bed emergency room outside the hospital is ongoing.  Teams are supporting the provision of other urgently needed medical services, including medical paediatrics and an intensive care unit.    

Emergency and Post Operative Care, Al-Taheel

MSF closed its project in Al Taheel, east Mosul at the end of July. The emergency room received 1,340 patients and more than 350 surgical interventions were carried out, mostly follow-up care and secondary surgery for war-wounded patients. MSF is handing over this facility to local health authorities, who plan to resume other medical activities in this location.

Projects in the outskirts of Mosul City

Qayyarah

To cater to the growing needs, MSF’s hospital in Qayyarah, 60 kilometres south of Mosul, now has 46 medical beds for intermediate care, observation and resuscitation.  Its intensive therapeutic feeding centre for malnourished children was expanded to 30 beds in July, as many infants – mostly under the age of six months – need treatment.  MSF also runs a mental health clinic for patients admitted to the hospital or referred from Qayyarah camps. Between December 2016 (when the hospital opened), and 15 July, the emergency room received more than 7,500 patients, 1,400 surgical interventions were performed and 450 malnourished infants were admitted to the therapeutic feeding programme. Staff have also provided more than 1,300 mental health consultations.

Qayyarrah camps

In late July, MSF opened an ambulatory feeding programme in the Qayyarah camps, which have an estimated population of more than 160,000 people displaced from Mosul. The programme provides assistance to children under five years of age, with a special focus on babies under six months of age who are most at risk. Mothers are supported in resuming breastfeeding and are offered mental healthcare.

Post-operative and rehabilitation care, Al Hamdaniya

MSF is providing post-operative care with rehabilitation and psychosocial support at Al Hamdaniya hospital in collaboration with Handicap International. Activities started on 15 March and, by the end of June, MSF had admitted 296 patients. To respond to the huge need for post-operative care, the facility now has 43 beds and is almost constantly full. 

Camps for displaced people, east of Mosul

Mid-February’s  offensive  in west Mosul swelled the populations of camps east of Mosul, in areas controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government. MSF mobile teams are treating people with chronic diseases (mainly diabetes and hypertension).  A team of more than 20 psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health doctors and counsellors is providing mental healthcare for camp and host community populations in nine locations. Activities include psychological and psychiatric consultations, group therapy, psychosocial counselling and child therapy. In 2017, the team has so far conducted more than 21,000 medical consultations, including basic healthcare and non-communicable diseases, and 13,600 mental health consultations.

Trauma care and primary healthcare, Hammam al-Alil

MSF closed its project in Hammam al-Alil at the end of July. Over the course of the conflict in Mosul, the town received major influxes of displaced and war-wounded people. In February, MSF opened a field trauma hospital with a 22-bed emergency room, two operating theatres, a seven-bed intensive care unit, a recovery room and a 32-bed inpatient ward. Mental health services were also provided. For more than a month, the MSF project was the closest surgical facility to west Mosul.

By the end of June, the emergency room had received 3,852 patients, more than 1,600 of whom were in critical or life-threatening condition. During the same period, the team performed 474 surgical procedures – mostly emergency operations – and admitted more than 750 patients.  MSF had also supported a nearby primary healthcare centre since late February. Staff provided more than 23,000 medical consultations and admitted 202 children suffering from acute malnutrition into its ambulatory therapeutic feeding programme. In June and July, MSF provided inpatient therapeutic feeding for malnourished children. MSF closed the project in Hammam al-Alil due to the reduced need for lifesaving trauma assistance and the increased capacity of other medical entities.