KEY 2021 MEDICAL FIGURES:
25,000
emergency room consultations
3,220
people treated for intentional physical violence
1,560
people treated for sexual violence
Throughout 2021, armed clashes, robberies and kidnappings affected people throughout Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. On July 7, the president was assassinated at his home.
MSF responded to the violence and other emergencies, while working to maintain vital medical services.
At our trauma hospital in the capital’s Tabarre neighbourhood, we provided surgery and follow-up care for patients with injuries from gunshots, stabbings and traffic accidents. A staff member was shot dead on his way home from work, a victim of the unbearable “ordinary violence” gripping the city.
In February, MSF closed all but the emergency department at our Drouillard hospital in Cité Soleil, the main facility for burns in the country, and moved our program and patients into the Tabarre hospital. In June, we closed our emergency centre in Martissant after it was targeted by gunfire for the first time in its 15-year history. In August, we opened a new emergency centre in Turgeau, another district of Port- au-Prince, and in late 2021, began supporting the emergency room of a public hospital in Carrefour. We also ran mobile clinics to support thousands of people who had fled armed clashes and were staying with relatives or in schools and churches. Throughout the year, we ran programs for survivors of gender-based and intimate-partner violence in our clinics in Port- au-Prince and Artibonite department.
After a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the south of the country on Aug. 14, we provided orthopedic surgery and follow-up care at hospitals in Jérémie and Les Cayes, referred trauma patients to our Tabarre hospital and emergency centre in Turgeau and dispatched teams to support medical facilities in affected areas. We also ran mobile clinics, delivered drinking water and repaired water networks in badly damaged regions.
