MSF back again in the North

The International Humanitarian NGO, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) returned to Jaffna, Mannar and Vavuniya to open medical clinics. MSF received clearance from the Ministry of Defense and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health.

For the past nine months MSF had been pushing for the provision of medical assistance to the conflict affected population but had only been allowed to work in Point Pedro for a period of two months, ending in October 2006.

The MSF team returned to the Jaffna Peninsula to provide surgical support to the hospital in Point Pedro which serves a population of 150,000 people, the INGO said in a statement.

The arrival of MSF practitioners has filled a long felt need at the Point Pedro hospital, which lacked a surgeon and anaesthetist. The hospital is no longer required to transfer all surgical cases to the Jaffna hospital. About 141 surgeries have been carried out with the hospital staff since the team arrived.

On January 15, MSF started another surgical program in Mannar district hospital in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. The hospital that serves a population of 100,000 resident and 10,000 displaced persons had been without a surgeon last year. Since beginning work in Mannar, 156 surgeries were performed, the statement said.

The MSF opened a third surgical support project in Vavuniya on January 23. Apart from a few weeks in December, the Vavuniya hospital which serves 180,000 people had no qualified surgeon for five months. In the first weeks of activity, 32 surgeries have been carried out, according to the MSF.

The MSF provided medical assistance in Sri Lanka between 1986 and 2004, and during the six months following the tsunami. The MSF returned to Sri Lanka in 2006.