Supply cuts, lack of access to patients and constant interruptions in the telephone signal make teleconsultation impossible
12 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has insisted that its teams in Burma are facing a series of extraordinary difficulties in carrying out their work to help vulnerable populations, especially the Rohingya minority, in the southwestern front of Rakhine State, a constant scene of fighting between the Burmese army and separatist groups that have become resistance forces against the country’s military junta.
MSF recalls that last month its teams had to suspend all operations in the north of the state, which has been an escape route to Bangladesh for years for Rohingya fleeing military persecution, due to the intensification of fighting between the army and the Arakan Army, an armed group defending the interests of the minority and designated a terrorist organisation by the military authorities, and in particular because of the destruction of its offices in Buthidaung township.
Since then, the situation has continued to worsen. In the centre of Rakhine, MSF is maintaining minimal services, but its teams “continue to face serious restrictions on access to the population, especially in the municipality of Pauktaw, where clinics “remain, for the moment, inaccessible.”
“Médecins Sans Frontières community staff have continued to provide basic health services, but it is difficult to provide basic medical care to patients as medical supplies are scarce and medical staff are unable to reach them,” MSF said.
These supply constraints are compounded by structural ones. Power grids are no longer providing energy in Rakhine, so health centres rely on generators, but fuel for their operation is not readily available because supply routes are disrupted or cut off, affecting their ability to perform medical procedures.
There is also no stable mobile phone signal: patients and volunteers have to walk long distances or climb hills to try to get a signal, so the option of teleconsultation, “the only contact left between the community and Doctors Without Borders,” according to MSF’s medical project manager, Caroline de Cramer, is increasingly unviable.
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