The director of the Rafic Hariri government hospital in Beirut, Dr Firas Abiad, said on Saturday that the main concern of hospitals at the current stage was power cuts.
“For most hospitals in Lebanon, the main concern at the moment is neither the Delta variant (of the coronavirus) nor the shortages of medical equipment,” said Dr Abiad, referring to the spread of this extremely contagious variant of which nine cases were detected in Lebanon on Friday, and shortages of medical equipment due to the economic crisis and the sharp depreciation of the pound.
“The major concern now is electricity, without which medical equipment cannot function,” explained the director of the hospital. “The old generators cannot operate without interruption. In the event of an outage, lives will be in danger,” warned the one who was on the front line during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Dr Abiad had already sounded the alarm on Monday, denouncing power cuts of up to 21 hours a day. “We cannot find fuel oil and if we find it, we have no cash to pay for it,” he said in a tweet. “We made the decision to cut the air conditioning, except in the medical services, despite the heatwave. We are really in hell,” he added.
Electricité du Liban has drastically rationed electricity for several weeks. Supply hours painfully exceed three hours per day in the country. In addition, generator owners – illegal but tolerated operators who have served as a palliative for the shortcomings of the electricity supplier for decades – also encounter difficulties in obtaining fuel oil, again following delays. of the Banque du Liban in the release of the requested credits, within the framework of the subsidies granted by the State.
–
The director of the Rafic Hariri government hospital in Beirut, Dr Firas Abiad, said on Saturday that the main concern of hospitals at the current stage was power cuts. “For most hospitals in Lebanon, the main concern currently is neither the Delta variant (of the coronavirus) nor the shortages of medical equipment “, a …
