Lebanon’s top hospital chief says hospitals are ill-equipped to face new COVID-19 wave

Lebanon’s top hospital director recently warned that the deepening economic crisis in the country has pilled pressure on hospitals, leaving them ill-equipped to face any new wave of the COVID-19. In a series of tweets, Firass Abiad, the manager of the largest public hospital in the country battling coronavirus, said that the COVID-19 cases in Lebanon continue to rise, while the ministry of health informed that the nation saw a 30 per cent increase in critical cases in one day. Calling it “bad news”, Abiad said that considering precautions are still not being adhered to, the rise in numbers is expected to continue. 

While speaking to reporters, Abiad also noted that all hospitals are now less prepared than they were during the wave at the start of the year. He said that medical and nursing staff have left, medicine that was once available has run out and even lengthening cuts to the mains power supply has also left hospitals under constant threat. "We only get two to three hours of mains electricity, and for the rest of the time it's up to the generators," Abiad said.

The hospital chief said that even at the prestigious Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), some medicines are routinely running out. He said that some days it’s antibiotics, others it’s anaesthetics. Sometimes "we're forced to ask the patients' relatives to go and try to find the medicine from another hospital or a pharmacy," Abiad added. 

COVID-19 outbreak in Lebanon 

It is worth noting that on Thursday, 98 people had tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival at Beirut airport, the health ministry informed. Amid rising cases, the top hospital chief said that it could be “catastrophic” if this increase in coronavirus numbers lead to a spike-like the one Lebanon saw at the start of the year. He said that the only solution was better social distancing and more inoculations in a country where just 15 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, according to reports, Lebanon’s private hospitals warned of a looming "catastrophe" as some were only hours away from running out of fuel to power their generators. Pharmacies have also said that they were going on indefinite strike over persistent shortages of medicines. Additionally, around 1,300 doctors have emigrated since the economic crisis began in 2019, with the numbers picking up over the past 12 months, the doctors' syndicate said.

(Image: Unsplash/Pixabay)