Social Issue

In Haiti, there is one doctor for every 10,000 patients and only 36% of health facilities belong to the public sector. The complex organizational and management problems facing the Haitian healthcare system make services limited and precarious.

Haitian public hospitals are characterised by poor management, strikes, a shortage of specialist professionals, as well as a lack of health infrastructure, diagnostic tools, beds, medicines, and medical supplies. In addition, patients are required to pay fees that are unacceptable for the majority of the Haitian population. The cost of medicines is also a brake on the marginal population who, driven by superstition and lack of means, turn to a healer rather than a doctor to treat their ailments or those of their children. When they finally arrive at the hospital, the situation is often critical.

This situation has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic that arrived in Haiti in March 2020 and spread rapidly among an extremely vulnerable population. 80% of the Haitian population lives in overcrowded and marginalised communities, without access to drinking water or electricity, often without sewers and in extremely unsanitary conditions, which has supported the spread of the virus.

Our Response

The project aims to attend to and improve the health of the marginal population of Port Au Prince that presents symptoms associated with COVID-19, in the St. Damien (pediatric) and St. Luc (adult) hospitals.

Both hospital centres work with the Ministry of Public Health of Haiti, which has granted them the status of reference hospitals to treat COVID-19 in the country. Any patient, child or adult, susceptible to suffering from the disease in Haiti, must be referred to these hospitals.

In both hospitals, beds have been set up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with oxygen dispensers for patients with more serious respiratory problems. Protective masks and hydroalcoholic gels have also been distributed to the health personnel, patients, and families cared for in both hospitals.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• To ensure the correct supply of basic supplies for the care of patients with COVID-19 at St. Damien and St. Luc hospitals. Among them, food, water, health supplies (masks, hydroalcoholic gel, oxygen), diagnostic tests, and medicines, with quality guaranteed according to WHO guidelines.
• To improve the diagnosis and treatment of the population affected by COVID-19 or with associated symptoms, offering intensive care and hospitalisation when necessary.
• To offer guidance and training in community health, for health professionals at St. Luc and St. Damien hospitals, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the health population and the population served.
• To promote the prevention of infectious diseases in the community, through an awareness program on the importance of prevention against COVID-19.

Expected Social Impact

Overall 62,875 people will benefit from this project, including:

• 2,000 positive patients and / or with symptoms associated with COVID-19 (500 children + 1,500 adults). They all come from a hostile environment of extreme poverty, overcrowding, and unsanitary conditions, and therefore cannot afford medical and / or hospital care.
• 875 health professionals who work in the St. Damien (595) and St. Luc (280) hospitals that are prevented and protected against infection by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
• 60,000 people from the community will receive training to deal with the contagion and the spread of the epidemic in Port Au Prince.

Netri’s contribution will benefit 8,300 people.