An emergency room doctor at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is appealing for help in Haiti after her clinic there was affected by a recent spate of riots.

Physician Tiffany Keenan runs the Haiti Village Health charity and medical clinic in the northern part of the Caribbean country.

She said violent protests were making it difficult for staff to get supplies and transport critically ill people to the hospital, which is half an hour away.

Foreign media reports suggest the riots against UN peacekeepers began after the peacekeepers were alleged to have spread cholera.

There has also been speculation that the protesting is politically motivated as a national election is scheduled for November 28.

In the past four weeks the Caribbean nation has been hit by a hurricane and flooding and an outbreak of cholera which at last count had killed more than 1,000 people.

The impoverished country is still recovering from a devastating earthquake that left around 230,000 dead and a million homeless in January.

Dr Keenan said: "Security-wise we are OK. Typically we have a Haitian doctor and nurse, but they haven't been able to come from the city because the roads have been blocked due to the riots."

She said there was only one doctor and two support staff on hand, meaning the general clinic was forced closed and they were only dealing with cholera cases.

The clinic has dealt with 18 incidences of cholera so far, including a six-year-old girl, who had to be taken to hospital by motorcycle as no other transport was available.

Despite the unrest, Dr Keenan and a team of five staff from Canada are preparing to fly to Haiti tomorrow.

She said: "It's unsafe for us to go there but we also know if we do not get down people are going to die. People are dying because of the lack of staff and lack of supplies.

"We are just monitoring the situation by the hour and hope the roads and airport will open up so we can get to the clinic."

Meanwhile Bermudian Philip Rego, the head of Feed my Lambs Ministry who operates an orphanage west of Port-au-Prince, said his clinic was trying to come to terms with an overwhelming number of cholera cases nearly 220 to 230 a day.

Mr Rego said: "We haven't had any problems to do with the rioting. Our kids are sick with cholera so we are trying to monitor that. We know people are really sick right now and we are trying to help them out as much as we can."

Both organisations are appealing for cash and support on behalf of the Haitian community. Donations to Feed my Lambs can be made to HSBC account 010-876795001 under the account name Feed My Lambs Ministry. Meanwhile donations for Haiti Village Health can be made to HSBC account number 010 871135 001.