Aklilu Tsegay
Lack of medicine and medical supplies at Ayder hospital has caused misery to patients seeking treatment
The largest referral hospital in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has suspended its regular operations due to lack of medicines and power outages, its medical director has told the BBC.
Dr Kibrom Gebreselassie said the Ayder Referral Hospital had reached a point where it could not provide services, after 18 months of war in the northern region.
He said the lack of medicine and medical supplies, as well as a lack of fuel, had prompted the suspension.
“Now there is no electricity in Tigray and we have stopped producing oxygen,” he added.
Doctors in the hospital had been working without pay for more than a year and could not support themselves or their families.
Since Tigray forces took control of the region last June, it has been under a de facto blockade, according to the UN, with many people in need of medical treatment dying due to a lack of medicine.
Medical professionals had told the BBC in April that the hospital has reached a point where it was discharging four to six bodies daily – up from between one and two bodies every two to three days.
Among those at risk of death due to lack of medicines and proper medical services were medical professionals at the hospital, according to sources from the hospital.
Source: BBC
