Angry parents assaulted the medical staff at the Children’s Hospital in Benghazi last April while awaiting medical tests and treatment with their children. The desperate parents opened fire in the hospital corridor without taking into account the sick children present.

This violent reaction came after several disappointments over the weak healthcare sector and worsening services throughout Libya.

Angry parents assaulted the medical staff at the Children’s Hospital in Benghazi last April while awaiting medical tests and treatment with their children. The desperate parents opened fire in the hospital corridor without taking into account the sick children present.

This violent reaction came after several disappointments over the weak healthcare sector and worsening services throughout Libya.

In one crowded hospital, a father said that his son had a chest allergy and needed immediate access to the artificial respiration room. But because of the large number of patients, he decided to leave and look for a private clinic to save his son’s life.

The head of the hospital’s information department, Huda Kweri, said that the management asked several governmental bodies to activate the specialized clinics in the city to relieve the pressure on the hospital, but no one has responded.

According to Amina Al-Wazri, head of the nursing department, the management has warned of the spread of a virus within the ward, due to the lack of regular maintenance for more than a year and a half. Not far away, the Republic Hospital in Benghazi, especially the degraded maternity ward, suffered from more dangerous conditions, where the manifestations of neglect and poor follow-up were visible everywhere. Water closets did not function, beds were very old, and even medical devices and equipment were old and out of order.

Al-Wazri said that this virus was threatening the other wards: Cardiology, Nervous and Internal Diseases, Blood Diseases, Dermatoses and Pregnant Care. She said eliminating the virus would require removing the floor, marble and walls.

The Republic Hospital receives cases from five large cities in eastern Libya: Sirte, Ra’s Lanuf, Bin Jawad and Brega, in addition to cases from Benghazi and its suburbs as well as the displaced who have come to the city from Tawergha and other cities after the revolution.

The hospital’s maternity ward receives all delivery cases from these areas, in addition to patients from private clinics requiring a post-delivery injection that can only be administered in this ward.

All patients in the hospital asserted that they were forced to come here since there was no alternative hospital to admit them in the entire eastern area.

Al-Wazri said that the Minister of Health, Fatima Hamroush, following her visit to the hospital, said it was not qualified to receive any cases, emphasizing the need to suspend work within it immediately.  She demanded that all competent authorities start referring patients to the Medical Center of Benghazi and demolish the hospital rather than maintain it.

These difficult conditions suffered by the area hospitals cast heavy shadows on the problems of the revolution’s wounded, who need highly efficient specialized treatment centers, which are unavailable in Libya.

Colonel Mohammed Abduljawad, commander of the battalion of Idris as-Senussi was a field commander during the liberation war. He was wounded at the Brega front three times and the last time, fragments spread throughout his body. Doctors have been able to remove only some of them, while the remaining pieces are still in the glands near the vocal cords and also in an area close to the heart. Their movement within his body might cause problems with undesirable consequences and removal will require traveling to Germany to undergo highly precise surgeries.

While many patients in hospitals and clinics in Benghazi await the opportunity for treatment abroad, they are afraid of how they might be treated.  

Between the spread of diseases and viruses in hospitals, staff negligence and lack of health controls, Libyan patients have become a prey to their illnesses and at the mercy of doctors working within a weak system.