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In consultation with the health ministry, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is providing hospitals in Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya districts with medical equipment and supplies for the treatment of sick and war-wounded people.
The limited number of staff available to care for routine cases alongside war casualties has become a critical issue for several hospitals in the north. In addition, the lack of regular deliveries of supplies from the health ministry has resulted in clinics and hospitals in the Vanni running out of basic medicines such as paracetamol, antibiotics and vaccines, ICRC said in a news release.
The ICRC is also lending its support to the health ministry’s child immunization programmes and to ante-natal care provided for pregnant women in Vavuniya North. "Almost 50 children were vaccinated and around 20 women received ante-natal care during the month of March".
"We accompany Ministry of Health staff – one doctor and two midwives - to Nedunkerni and Kanakarayankulam, where they run clinics for pregnant women and ensure that children follow the prescribed immunization programme," says Yvonne Ginifer, an ICRC health delegate based in Vavuniya.
Under international humanitarian law applicable in armed-conflict situations, people not involved in fighting, including the wounded and sick, whether they be civilians or fighters, must be given any medical care they may require as quickly as possible.
Jaffna residents cannot obtain certain health-care services on the peninsula. To ensure that appropriate levels of health care are nevertheless available to them, the ICRC airlifts patients between Jaffna and Colombo twice a week. In March alone, 54 patients requiring specialized surgery, medical tests or treatment, accompanied by 35 caretakers and 10 medical staff from the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, were transported to Colombo on ICRC-chartered flights. In addition, medical equipment, vaccines prescribed for children through the national immunization programme and drugs for pregnant women were routinely transported on Jaffna-bound flights.
"The ICRC flights are a great help for patients, especially those with complicated illnesses. For them, access to appropriate care is a matter of life and death," says a doctor working at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital who accompanies patients on the flights. Jaffna’s health-service personnel also use the ICRC-chartered aircraft to travel to other parts of the country for their medical training.
