Yemeni health officials have warned for the consequences of a continuing fuel shortage in private and public hospitals.
“If hospital was closed due to the fuel crisis, this might led to the death of about 3,000 pregnant women and 400 to 500 children received by the hospital nurseries per month,” said Dr. Magda al-Khatib, director of the Al-Sabaeen Hospital for Maternity and Childhood
He noted that the United Nations organisations have permanently stopped fuel subsidies in 2022, which has contributed to the intensification of the fuel crisis.
For his part, Dr. Mutahar al-Marwani, Director General of the Health Office in the capital Sana’a, said that “There are 87 public and private hospitals in the capital, 529 public and private medical centers, as well as 7 oxygen factories, whose monthly need is more than 2 million liters of diesel.”
Al-Marwani stressed that international organisations were informed by the Ministry of Health ten days ago of the danger of continuing the siege against the fuel ships by the coalition states.
Meanwhile, Nasser al-Qadri, Secretary-General of the Federation of Private Hospitals, pointed out that the fuel crisis has imposed a new problem related to the inability of doctors and technical and administrative staff to even merely reach hospitals.
He explained that the hospitals and private centers in Yemen need one million and one hundred thousand liters of diesel per month, but due to the war and blockade, currently only 30% of thjs need is provided by the national oil company and the Sana’a government.
