The hospital has been set up to treat the increasing number of people injured as a result of armed conflict in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and NWFP (North-West Frontier Province). The Hospital will be opened by ICRC President Jacob Kellenberger, who is visiting the region to see for himself the extent to which civilian lives are endangered by the growing conflict in the area. In recent months the armed conflict in the north of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province has forced many people to flee their homes. Since the upturn in fighting between the authorities and armed groups in Bajaur Agency, North West Pakistan in August last year, the number of patients suffering bomb blast, shrapnel and bullet wounds has increased by over a third. The ICRC is extremely concerned that civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict, with many being killed, maimed and deprived of adequate medical treatment because of fighting and insecurity.

The ICRC's tented hospital in Peshawar was set up in February to provide urgent surgery and follow-up treatment for those injured in the conflict. " There is no discrimination… whether it is a fighter or civilian, no matter from which ethnic group he is coming from, he is a patient for us," says Dr Adnan Jamal, a Pakistani doctor working at the hospital.

Among the patients currently being treated is 10 year old Alina from Darra Adam Khel town in Khyber Agency. Two months ago, she was hit by shrapnel when a bomb exploded as she was going out to play with friends outside her home. One child was killed outright, while Alina was seriously injured. Following surgery to remove shrapnel from her legs, she is now on the mend and will be able to return home soon.

10 year old Nasir Ali, who has a badly broken leg, has to stay another month at the hospital before he can go home to his village in Bajaur Agency. He has been at the field hospital since February. He was caught in a bomb blast in November 2008 which killed his 9 year old sister who was sleeping in the same bed.

Some of the patients in the tented hospital, like Gul Shahdaara, need treatment for long-standing injuries. She lost her leg in a bomb explosion two years ago and has had an operation so that she can be fitted with an artificial leg.

Without the Field Hospital, many patients would have died or been left more seriously disabled. Most cannot afford to pay the fees of private clinics, while medical facilities in areas where the conflict is at its worst, do not have the experience or skills to treat the complex injuries caused by bombs and bullets.

The field hospital, which is fully equipped with 6 wards, an operating theatre, X ray, physiotherapy and intensive care facilities, has been provided by the Finnish Red Cross. However, it is a temporary solution, allowing staff to give immediate care to the growing number of wounded patients. "The tent is not the proper solution for this hospital … we need a concrete building," says Sabahat Gillani, ICRC Assistant Project Manager at the field hospital.

The ICRC is expanding its work to treat the increasing flow of weapon-wounded from the conflict along the Pakistan-Afghan border, and has more than doubled its budget in Pakistan from 24.1 million Swiss francs to 52.6 million for the coming year.




SHOT LIST

Date, location: Peshawar, Pakistan, 6-10 April, 2009
Production: Jan Powell, ICRC
Camera: Jameel Ahmed
Sound: VO, English, Urdu
Length: 09' 56"
Format: HDVCam 16:9
Ref: VF CR-F-01025-A
Copyright: ICRC - Access all

00:00 Peshawar GVs
00:42 Various shots of ambulance arriving at ICRC Surgical Hospital for Weapon-Wounded, Peshawar, with wounded
01:11 Various shots of tented field hospital exteriors
01:31 Various shots of the operating theatre

Dr Frank Plani operating on a 22 year old man wounded in a bomb blast . He has 4th degree burns, seriously damaged muscle tissue, and multiple fractures to his leg. If he had not been treated at this hospital, he would have died.

02:59 Interview Dr Frank Plani, ICRC Surgeon (English)

"We are getting patients that have been recently injured in episodes related to weapon incidents so we've got women, children, old people. We've got a couple of very elderly gentlemen at the moment. We've got children and we've got people involved in bomb blasts, aerial bombardments, gunshots, shot gun injuries, you name it. We also get quite a lot of old patients being treated by the ICRC over quite some time ago with complications and we deal with that as well."

03:36 Bomb blast patient who has been operated on is taken out of op theatre on a trolley.
03: 55 Dr Adnan Jamal with patients
04:03 Interview Dr Adnan Jamal, ICRC Doctor (English)

"It is working as a humanitarian organisation. We have to treat the people who are weapon wounded. We can get civilians, fighters. There is no discrimination between these people. We are treating just the weapon wounded patients, whether it is fighter or civilian, no matter from which ethnic group he is coming from, whether he is poor, whether he is a rich man, he is a patient for us and we have to treat them."

04:29 Various shots of Alina 10 year old girl walking with her frame
04:58 Interview Alina, patient (Urdu)

"The bomb went off as I was leaving my house to go out to play with my friends. One of them was injured and died from her injuries".

05:04

"My leg was hit. I have shrapnel in my feet. The doctors have removed it from this leg but there is still some in my other leg".

05:12 "My school was bombed"
05:14 "I want to be a school teacher in the school".
05:20 Alina and New Zealand nurse, Linda Jury, playing ball
05: 40 Interview Linda Marie Jury, ICRC Nurse (English)

"Alina is a 10 year old girl that we have had here for a few weeks so far. She is from the Khyber agency that is not so far away. It's really a sad case. She is only 10 and was caught in a bomb blast injury. She is living with lots of family, in a big family and has come here with a severely infected ankle injury which has needed surgery and it has been really difficult for her to walk".
"She has had a couple of surgeries and she is now on the mend. She is doing really well. She is walking again. She is doing physiotherapy. She is on antibiotics but she will be able to go home in the next week or two, I'd say".

06:29 Linda walking with another nurse, passing in front of Alina
06:45

"I really wanted to come and work somewhere where I could be useful and where I really felt like I could contribute my clinical skills in a really meaningful way and working in a country where people are in need".

07:04 Operating on Gul-Shahdaara from Khaysura village, Waziristan Agency.

She is having her stump revised in preparation for an artificial limb. She lost her leg in a bomb blast two years ago.

07 :39 Gul-Shahdaara, patient (Urdu)

"I was sitting outside. All of us girls were there. Suddenly a bomb went off. One of my cousins died and another lost an eye.I fainted and lost my leg".

07:43

"I want my leg to be healed so I can get an artificial limb and be normal again. Once I have this I shall be able to move around normally and live life normally".

07:55 Gul Shahdaara in wheelchair
08:10 10 year old Nasir Ali walking into ward,
various shots of doctor and nurse with Nasir Ali
shot of men in their ward

08:53 various shots of Sabahat Gillani with young boy patient just arrived at the hospital - 6 years old, badly burned in a shelling incident in his village on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan
.
09:14 Interview Sabahat Gillani, Assistant Project Manager, ICRC Surgical Hospital for Weapon-wounded, Peshawar (English)

"The tent is not the proper solution for this hospital, for this field hospital here so we need a concrete building for that "

09:38 Exterior of Sabahat Gillani walking between tented wards

Various images of patients outside
09:56 END