- Title: Libyan health crisis worsens with staff and medicine shortages
- Date: 7th November 2016
- Summary: BENGHAZI, LIBYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF BENGHAZI MEDICAL CENTRE SIGN ON BUILDING READING (Arabic): "BENGHAZI MEDICAL CENTRE" PATIENTS SEATED INSIDE CENTRE EXTERIOR OF CLINIC INSIDE CENTRE SIGN ON WALL READING (Arabic/English): "ONCOLOGY CLINIC AND CHEMOTHERAPY DAY UNIT" HALLWAY INSIDE CLINIC PATIENTS LYING DOWN IN ROOM PATIENT TALKING TO DOCTOR PATIENT'S FACE VARIOUS OF DOCTOR PUTTING IN CANNULA FOR PATIENT ANOTHER PATIENT STANDING IN HALLWAY (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PATIENT, IBRAHIM HAMED, SAYING: "The state doesn't participate (in funds). In the period of 2013 and 2014, the state hasn't pitched in at all. It hasn't pitched in for tumour patients, the blood tests alone cost 180-190 Dinars, and you have to pay in cash, there are problems, and may God (be with us)." PHARMACY AT THE MEDICAL CENTRE VARIOUS OF SIGN ON PHARMACY WINDOW READING (Arabic): "SPECIAL COUNTER FOR MEDICINE FOR PATIENTS WITH BLOOD TUMOURS" INTERIOR OF PHARMACY VARIOUS OF MEDICINE ON SHELVES VARIOUS OF PATIENT BUYING MEDICINE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WIFE OF PATIENT, NAEEMA MOHAMED, SAYING: "Honestly, yes, there are good doctors here, but there is no medicine, we have to get it externally. We have to buy antibiotics and pills from somewhere else. There should be a priority of the budget for disease cases." NAEEMA MOHAMED WALKING AWAY HOSPITAL MANAGER, MOHAMED OSAMA, SEATED AT HIS DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HOSPITAL MANAGER, MOHAMED OSAMA, SAYING: "We're suffering shortages in many of the hospital's resources, at the top of which are anaesthesia drugs. Cancer patients also suffer shortages in many of their medical needs. Those with heart disease, I believe, are the ones who've suffered the most in this crisis, angioplasty and pacemaker implants have unfortunately become unavailable." MOHAMED WRITING IN NOTEBOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HOSPITAL MANAGER, MOHAMED OSAMA, SAYING: "There is an abundance of doctors, but we have a problem with nurses, because around 550 nurses left in the past two years as a result of low funds, and the security situation as well had an impact, but it's become stable now. The problem with bank remittances has also had an impact, and foreign countries have issued warnings advising their people against travel to Libya." PEOPLE WALKING INSIDE MEDICAL CENTRE
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2016 12:48
- Keywords: Libya war medicine health security shortages
- Location: BENGHAZI, LIBYA
- City: BENGHAZI, LIBYA
- Country: Libya
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA00157G0J11
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Amid tumultuous times in Libya, the Benghazi Medical Centre has with withstood the damage of war and stayed afloat in an ailing economy.
A number of hospitals have been forced to shut down in the city since the start of Libya's second civil war in 2014, after air strikes and militants bombarded the facilities, using the buildings as hideouts.
The centre now operates from two of its three buildings. Almost 2,000 patients visit the centre daily, with 50 to 60 patients in each clinic.
Patients visiting the centre say they are struggling to meet the costs of procedures and medicines.
"In the period of 2013 and 2014, the state hasn't pitched in at all. It hasn't pitched in for tumour patients, the blood tests alone cost 180-190 dinars ($129-137), and you have to pay in cash, there are problems," said patient Ibrahim Hamed.
Many medicines including those for heart disease have all but disappeared from the facility's in-house pharmacy, prompting patients to seek out drugs elsewhere, at much higher prices.
Patients can sometimes spend days waiting for their treatments to become available.
"Honestly, yes, there are good doctors here, but there is no medicine, we have to get it externally, we have to buy antibiotics and pills from somewhere else. There should be a priority of the budget should go to disease cases," said Naeema Mohamed, the wife of a patient.
Libya's economy is almost entirely dependent on oil revenues, and the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and the CBL, which processes all NOC earnings, are the country's key institutions.
Both split when rival governments and parliaments were set up in Tripoli and eastern Libya in 2014.
Despite oil production having recently doubled to nearly 600,000 barrels per day after eastern commander Kahlifa Haftar seized key oil ports and let the NOC reopen them, output remains at well under half pre-2011 levels.
This means a lack of foreign funds and state liquidity to spend on health.
Hospital manager Mohamed Osama said as a result, the centre was struggling to acquire the necessary drugs, and medical equipment remains scarce.
"We're suffering shortages in many of the hospital's resources, at the top of which are anaesthesia drugs. Cancer patients also suffer shortages in many of their medical needs. Those with heart disease, I believe are the ones who've suffered the most in this crisis, angioplasty and pacemaker implants have unfortunately become unavailable," he said.
"Around 550 nurses left in the past two years as a result of low funds, and the security situation as well had an impact, but it's become stable now. The problem with bank remittances has also had an impact, and foreign countries have issued warnings against travel to Libya," he added.
In the past, Libya has relied on foreign doctors and nurses, many of whom have left the country due to the conflict. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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