By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 6 July 2015:
Zliten is the latest town to warn that its medical services are under threat because of . . .[restrict]the political crisis. The municipal council has issued a statement saying that health services in the town are collapsing and that the government (in Tripoli), the Ministry of Health and Audit Bureau were morally and legally responsible for the current astate of affairs. .
It said it was deeply concerned with the situation in Zliten Teaching Hospital which is short of both medical supplies and staff as a result of the crisis. Many nurses and other auxilliary staff have left the country because of the current state of affairs.
The hospital serves more than a quarter of a million people, the council said, both in Zlintan municipality and in surrounding areas.
Last week, the hospital at Esbieh, 15 kilometres south of Tripoli International Airport, announced it was closing its doors to new patients. It cited numerous problems, from the departure of foreign staff and the non-payment of salaries to doctors, resulting in them stopping work, to a lack of medicines and equipment. There were no more laboratory technicians, the X-ray and CT-scan department was unable to work because it had no more film, and the emergency department had no drugs.
The hospital director, Dr Al-Mabrouk Al-Maati, likewise blamed the Health Ministry and the government in Tripoli for the situation. [/restrict]