Tripoli’s hospitals have become dangerous battlegrounds with repeated assaults on patients and medical staff, who continue to stage protests in front of the Ministry of Health (MoH) demanding it cooperate with the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to provide the needed protection for medical institutions and prevent gunmen’s assaults.
Tripoli’s hospitals have become dangerous battlegrounds with repeated assaults on patients and medical staff, who continue to stage protests in front of the Ministry of Health (MoH) demanding it cooperate with the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to provide the needed protection for medical institutions and prevent gunmen’s assaults.
The protests, which commenced in April, were sparked last January when a girl with a severe brain hemorrhage died in intensive care after being raped by a security guard affiliated with an armed brigade protecting Tripoli Health Center. The guard forced a Filipino orderly to leave the room during the incident. The orderly however reported the incident and helped arrest the criminal who is now on remand.
This rape incident came after many assaults, most prominently was when gunmen killed a patient in the recovery room in Abu Salim Hospital in Tripoli to avenge the death of a relative.
Protesting for protection
In an unprecedented move, MoI Undersecretary Omar Khazrawi visited the sitters-in early in April, after they issued a statement of their demands of “Creating a safe environment to help them perform their duties,” and reviewing the Medical Responsibility Law to “guarantee doctors’ and patients’ rights alike in line with the country’s available resources.”
In addition, doctors of Zawiya Hospital staged a sit-in demanding enhancement of “the deteriorated security situation” inside Tripoli’s hospitals and medical facilities and denouncing the murder committed in Abu Salim Hospital.
Government promises
Dr. Wael Gaddafi, Head of Tripoli’s Doctors Association Public Relation, said doctors organized two protests in April; yet, they were keen on providing their daily services to citizens.
Mohsen Bwarwi, the media coordinator in charge of covering the sit-in, said Khazrawi met the doctors on April 22nd and promised to provide seven solutions in no more than two weeks, but his promises have not been fulfilled.
The proposed solutions, says Bwarwi, includes removing armed men from medical facilities and hospitals, activating police and security centers inside hospitals, establishing a new apparatus to secure medical facilities and providing the needed technical consultancy to set up surveillance systems in hospitals.
Khazrawi also promised to prosecute those involved in breaking into hospitals and attacking patients and staff in all the Libyan cities, follow up on recent murders and sexual assaults, reveal the results of investigation and eventually bring the perpetrators to justice.
Condemnation and denunciation
MoH responded to these assaults with a mere statement calling upon “governmental institutions and civil society organizations to assume their responsibilities and stop the growing phenomenon of trespassing on hospitals.”
In addition, MoH demanded young men to “be noble minded” during such crises and abstain from “shedding more blood which the country needs at this sensitive stage.”
“The violent attacks on medical staff and patients inside hospitals negatively impact on providing medical services,” said Nourreddine Daghman, Minister of Health, in a press release, adding that “the medical facilities are purely civil and human institutions that should not be trespassed even during wars.” Daghman also described the situation inside hospitals as “thorny and awful,” stressing MoI important role in protecting hospitals.
However, Bwarwi confirmed statements by Prime Minister Ali Zeidan that there would be an eminent reshuffle that would replace the current minister of health with a new one able to handle such complicated thorny sector.
Attacks are still taking place
Director of MoH Media and Health Awareness Ammar Muhammad Ammar said the minister held many meetings with the associations of doctors and hospital chiefs to discuss hospitals’ security situation. “We officially addressed the Ministry of Interior, demanding more security guards to protect hospitals, but we were met with mere promises,” he added.
“Nawasi Brigade was protecting Tripoli’s Central Hospital, but it withdrew for unknown reasons,” said Bwarwi, denouncing the fact that MoI did not assign any entity to replace the brigade, especially when the situation would be relatively more secure by the availability of a protecting body.
Protection brigades
An anonymous MoI source said that MoI negotiated with a number of its security brigades to protect hospitals, but they refused to avoid clashes with other armed formations, which usually carried out such attacks.
Independence Hospital and Abu Salim Hospital, says the source, are protected by Abu Salim Military Council whereas the Medical Center is temporarily protected by the Capital’s Protection Chamber, but Tripoli’s Medical Center remains without protection after withdrawal of the Nawasi Brigade.
Resorting to armed brigades seems to be the only solution available as MoJ remains inactive and the Directorate of National Security offered mere statements such as, “We should cooperate to restore security to hospitals,” and “We should protect medical staff from the attacks” in their meetings with the Chief of Abu Salim Hospital where the murder took place.
