The ancestors first said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," but currently there is no money available, nor prevention, not even treatment.

Visiting the doctor has become akin to a real nightmare that haunts Syrians. As soon as one feels pain or contracts an illness, God forbid, their symptoms will worsen if the idea of visiting the doctor to check what remains "healthy" in their body crosses their mind, because this visit "will raise their pressure" if it does not "clot them" along with the legendary examination fees that have become burdensome for patients. 

A study recently conducted by “Disappointed Syrians” found that visiting the doctor is one of the causes of “stroke,” and the same study clarified that their clinics have become devoid of “money counters,” as have “banks,” after the examination fees of some of them reached numbers that are difficult to utter.

With a simple calculation, when the idea of consulting a doctor flashes in the mind of a Syrian, they must think about how to secure the examination fee, especially if it includes echocardiography, ECG, and other such medical procedures. The examination starts at 30,000 Syrian pounds, knowing that it varies according to region and doctor’s fame, in addition to the clinic’s equipment. It is known that a doctor in “luxurious neighborhoods” is different from a doctor in “popular neighborhoods” despite the similarity of medical information, with differences in experience. However, the former may not be as experienced as the latter. 

We have not taken a step towards the cost of the “receipt” for medications and tests, for fear of you getting “post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Some attribute the high fees of doctor’s visits and the lack of clear controls to determine them to the difficult conditions faced by the doctors themselves as a result of the financial obligations imposed on them, such as taxes and clinic operating costs, which prompts them to neglect the patients’ ability to bear those costs when setting the fees, although the supreme goal of the doctor has always been to provide treatment and health care regardless of the material return, but “my dear sir, who asks about the other these days!”

It is well known that the authority responsible for issuing doctors’ fees is the Ministry of Health, and the union is not concerned with issuing them as many people believe. The ministry allows citizens to complain if the cost of diagnosis is high, but the important question remains: how does a citizen know if the cost is high if it has not been determined by the Ministry of Health? Do they rely on the citizen to “figure it out”?!

In tandem with the high cost of living and the rise in doctors’ examination fees, Syrians have turned away from visiting private clinics and headed to public health centers and hospitals. Many medical cases have resorted to the pharmacist to prescribe medication, so the pharmacist has become for the Syrian citizen the "lifeline" of mercy in the face of the greed of private clinic doctors.  

Notable is that medical centers and even hospital clinics, most of which are public sector, usually lack medical supplies for treatment, such as the lack of “anesthesia” in dental clinics. In addition to the unavailability of many laboratory tests, they are overcrowded with appointments and number of patients, especially pediatric clinics. The patient may have to postpone their surgery for months of waiting due to increased pressure and overcrowding in public hospitals. It is very likely, dear citizen, that your turn to stand on the straight path “comes before your turn for surgery.” This is not to mention the scarcity of specialist doctors, a large number of whom have emigrated, leaving behind citizens struggling with diseases and ailments every day.

The number of registered doctors in Syria with the union is estimated at thirty thousand doctors of various specializations. There is no figure for the number who have left in the past year.