By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 20 January 2014:
Murzuk hospital is suffering a severe shortage of basic medical supplies, blood and medical . . .[restrict]staff as a result of the clashes in Sebha, and people are dying as a result, the Libya Herald has been told.
Dead and wounded from the fighting were being taken the 170 kilometres to the hospital on an daily basis, the manager of medical affairs has stated. The situation was also putting a strain on medical staff. There were not enough of them to cope with the influx.
Mohamed Ali Whamer, who also heads the hospital’s crisis committee, today said that the 60-bed hospital had received a total of 19 bodies and 60 wounded, almost all of them Tebus, since the start of the clashes in Sebha. Medical supplies were now running out, he warned.
“We’re in desperate need of medical supplies” he said. “A number of those who were wounded have died because we don’t have enough doctors or blood supplies.”
The hospital had asked the Ministry of Health to send urgent medical supplies and temporary extra medical staff to cope with the crisis, Whamer explained.
He added that he had himself phoned Sebha’s main hospital for supplies after the UAE flew two planeloads of medicines and equipment as well as a 15-member medical team to the conflict-scarred town last week. Supplies were provided but were then stolen.
“I sent a medical pick up vehicle to Sebha, but when it was ready to head back to Murzuk, it was attacked by gunmen who beat up the driver and took the supplies,” Whamer said. [/restrict]
