By Adam Ali.
Benghazi, 23 January 2015:
Benghazi Medical Centre (BMC) has warned it may soon have to stop performing surgery because of . . .[restrict]a severe shortage of anaesthetic.
“We have enough anaesthetic supplies to make it through about one week,” said BMC Spokesman Khalil Koueider.
The hospital is not only lacking in anaesthetics. According to Salem Lange, a doctor at BMC, all departments are having to deal with acute shortages.
“Benghazi Medical Centre is facing a real crisis. Because of severe shortages in laboratory supplies, we are unable to perform blood tests. We are also lacking the essential drugs for treating our cancer patients,” Lange said.
The BMC has been trying to address the shortages with the Ministry of Health since August of 2014, but because of the budget deficit and other issues, its appeals have been made without success, officials say.
Because a number of the hospitals in Benghazi, including Benghazi Eye Clinic, 7 October hospital, and Hawari hospital, have been forced to close, the calls on the BMC’s services have ballooned. The BMC has thus formed a special committee in coordination with the Libyan Red Crescent to help address needs that are no longer being met by the institutions that have closed.
One issue the crisis committee has addressed is that of pregnant women. Though BMC previously had no labour and delivery unit, the hospital opened a make-shift one last fall after Hawari hospital closed. This unit has since delivered over one thousand babies with the help of obstetricians from hospitals all around Benghazi.
The hospital is a monument to the Qaddafi regime’s contempt for Benghazi. Designed and started under the monarchy, it remains unfinished to this day. [/restrict]
