By Libya Herald reporter.
Benghazi, 18 March 2017:
The outpatients’ clinic at Benghazi’s Hawari Hospital is to reopen on 1 April as a first stage in plans to reopen the entire hospital. This was confirmed today at a meeting at the hospital attended by Nader Guwairi, the undersecretary in the Beida-based government’s health ministry.
At present the only two hospitals fully functioning in Benghazi are Benghazi Medical Centre and Jalaa Hospital. There are, however, a number of polyclinics also operating, including the Hawari Clinic which reopened last month.
Hawari Hospital closed in October 2014 at which point it was taken over by the militants who ran it as their own medical facility. It was though, extensively damaged and plundered. However a number of departments, such as ENT, relocated and started operating elsewhere in the city. The hospital was largely recaptured a year ago, but was considered too close to continued fighting to reopen. Plans to do so, however, have been ongoing for months.
Last Saturday, though, there was a tour of updated facilities at hospital by security and military officials and the go-ahead was given for it to restart work.
At today’s meeting, progress was also reviewed on the reopening of the hospital’s cardiology, surgery, radiology, endoscopy and internal medicine departments.
According to the head of the hospitals’ information office, Hani Al-Oraibi, the upgraded facilities include a hundred new beds donated by Libyana, the mobile phone company, and redecoration works provided by local charities, including the For You Benghazi Organisation and the Benghazi Hope Foundation.
