By Adam Ali.
Benghazi, 26 June 2015:
Benghazi Medical Centre is struggling to keep its pharmacy stocked with medicines while it has store . . .[restrict]cupboards full of pharmaceuticals that are out of date.
Pharmacy head, Dr Asaidh Erhim told the Libya Herald that the hospital was facing a catastrophe. The shortages were severe, particularly of pain killers and antibiotics. Recent requests for fresh supplies both to the Ministry of Health in Beida and to health officials in Tripoli had brought no response.
She said that if the BMC was forced to close its pharmacy for lack of medicines, the impact would be felt not just in the city but throughout the eastern region. People would no longer be able to pick up repeat prescriptions and smaller hospitals which have relied on the BMC to provide them with pharmaceuticals will have to source their treatments elsewhere or go short. Meanwhile the demand from within the hospital, not least from the Accident and Emergency and oncology departments is becoming ever harder to meet.
Her warning has been echoed by the head of clinical pharmacology, Dr Hanan Buraiki who said that the problem had become critical for the emergency room. Some people, she said, were going out and buying drugs themselves for their relatives who were being treated at the hospital. But prices were high and it was not always possible to find the exact drug that doctors wished to prescribe.
Meanwhile locked store cupboards in the pharmacy are overflowing with drugs which, said Erhim are out of date and dangerous. These need to be disposed of safely by the Ministry of Health, yet despite repeated requests, nothing has been done about them. [/restrict]
