Mehmed Ali’s Syrian field hospitals were dangerously overcrowded and understaffed

Evidence

The hospitals in Syria were also suffering from being overcrowded with patients and understaffed by doctors. An investigation was once conducted into the performance of the hospital in Acre. Munib Efendi conducted the investigation himself and cleared the hospital’s director of responsibility. The problem, his report said, was that the hospital was overcrowded and the doctors could not cope with the number of patients they were receiving every day. At that particular time it had over 300 inmates and was expecting forty-five more patients that day. This large number made it impossible to order the patients to have their regular baths, something that the patients afflicted with scabies had to do as part of their treatment. The other problem, Munib Efendi added in his report, was that the doctors had no control over the patients, who were constantly going out to the markets and no one could stop them. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1140

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to A Midwife’s Tale and general reading on how regulation vs. practice diverges in pre-modern medicine.