This year, most injuries and deaths occurred in secondary care, where one in five attacks resulted in injuries.
Since the start of the rampage, Russia has carried out 1,940 attacks on the Ukrainian medical system. This is the highest number recorded in any humanitarian emergency in the world, WHO said.
“In more than 2.5 years, 86% of all such attacks took place in medical facilities, with a large proportion of them using heavy weapons, attacks confirmed by the WHO in medical facilities has increased significantly since December 2023 – it happens almost every day ,” – said the message.
It was found that during a mass war, an average of 200 ambulances were damaged or destroyed annually due to shelling.
According to WHO representative in Ukraine, Jarno Habicht, in 2024 there will be many double attacks.
“Today we have more attacks on civilian infrastructure than ever before. We are losing colleagues – health workers, nurses, doctors, paramedics. This year, more health workers have been injured than ever before. According to the WHO, primary care and medical transport workers are three times more likely to be attacked than other health workers,” he said.
Reportedly, 24 deaths among healthcare workers and patients were recorded in 2023. At the same time, in the first 7.5 months of 2024, 34 people died from attacks on medical facilities. The number of injuries this year exceeded not only the numbers for 2023, but also 2022. So far there have been 229 people. Thus, every fourth attack on medical facilities resulted in injuries.
According to the WHO, 42% of all attacks since 2022 have affected primary health care.
This year, most injuries and deaths occurred in secondary care, where one in five attacks resulted in injuries. As for emergency medical care, every second of shelling results in injuries.
We remind you that the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital was damaged during the Russian shelling in Kyiv. During the strike, there were 627 children in the establishment, eight of whom were injured, and two adults were killed. 94 patients were taken to other hospitals. Another boy later died of his wounds.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.