North Libya hospitals running out of supplies

The largest government specialized hospital in Benghazi city, north Libya, warned Sunday that it would be forced to close down due to the shortage of medical supplies and the unrest in Al-Hawwari neighborhood.
The kidney diseases center and the other health facilities in the city are running out of medicine stocks and the equipment necessary for their operation as a result of the deteriorating security situation which forced foreign medical staff to leave.
Despite repeated appeals to all competent bodies, notably the Ministry of Health and the Tobruq-based government of Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Theni, the necessary medical supplies have not come so far, the center said a statement.
The statement noted that the government officials know the difficulties facing the center coupled with the failure to dispense the appropriations of the current fiscal year.
The management of the center said it was making this statement as a final warning about its inability to provide service to the public so that it would not be held legally or morally responsible for any consequences of the current situation or the eminent closure.
On the security situation in the city, spokesman of the kidney center Mo'taz Al-Mejbari said gunmen repeatedly make transgressions on the medical facilities and put the life of medics in great peril.
"The driver of the center's sole ambulance was recently shot in the leg days after a patient was shot dead by gunmen manning a security checkpoint," Al-Mejbari said in a statement to KUNA, noting that his center used to serve patients from across the northeastern parts of the country.
The medical official renewed the call for the interim government and the municipal council of Benghazi to shoulder their moral responsibilities for providing the patients with safe access to the medical facilities.
The Minister of Health Redha Al-Awqali warned, a week ago, of a humanitarian disaster in east Libya as a result of the elimination of the strategic stocks of medical supplies.