By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi, 19 July 2017:
The top management of Benghazi Medical Centre has been arrested today in the wake of a series of scandals that was triggered by the discovery of rotting embryos in a malfunctioning refrigerator.
There has reportedly since been footage made by his family of a comatose intensive care unit patient with worms growing in his mouth and allegations that the hospital has been dispensing expired medicines and using out-of-date anaesthetics in operations.
Beida government attorney-general Tawfiq Al-Hassi himself led an investigation team to the hospital today and ordered the arrest of BMC administrator Dr Mohammed Al-Zawi along with medical director Dr Saaduddin Al-Mismari.
It is understood that the head of surgery Mohammad Aziz was also detained along with anaesthetist Fathi Abdel-Salam Al-Obaidi and a senior anaesthesia technician, Mohsen Al-Agouri. It is unclear if other senior staff members have also been arrested on the grounds of professional negligence.
Hassi’s BMC probe today even extended to the kitchens where he examined the food that was being served to patients. He did not seem impressed by what he saw.
Past allegations of corruption among senior managers have been balanced by reports that the hospital is seriously undersupplied with medicines. As long ago as 2015, BMC’s pharmacy manager Dr Asaidh Erhim told this newspaper the hospital was facing a catastrophe with store cupboards full of out-o- date medications that it could not afford to replace.
Beida health minister Reida El-Oakley has said that , lacking access to Central Bank of Libya funding, the health service in the east of the country was struggling to get by.
