Funds shortage keeps Libya hospitals from operating

A senior health official of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), Mohamed Al-Obeidi, said that the shortage in funds resulted in the cessation of operations in some government hospitals and a shortage in services in others. This has forced patients to resort to private hospitals.

In a statement to Alaraby Aljadeed, Al-Obeidi said: “We are waiting for funds in order for us to continue operations. The health situation is very critical, as there are no medical services or medications; they are only found in major hospitals.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently warned that the health situation in Libya had reached critical levels due to a lack of medical supplies and funding.

A WHO spokesman in Libya, Ahmed Salem, has said that 40 per cent of hospitals are working at half capacity and many were closed. This threatens the collapse of the Libyan heath system.

Official data shows that the budget for the Libyan Medical Supplies Organisation, which is responsible for importing medications into government hospitals only, is $507 million annually.

The date also shows that the organisation’s debt to private companies importing medications is now at about $1.2 million.

The political division and armed conflict in Libya, as well as the decline in world oil prices for over two years, has hit the North African country’s treasury, with oil revenues declining to only a fifth of what they were six years ago.