Taiz’s Republican Hospital warns 270 dialysis patients face shutdown

Taiz’s Republican Hospital warned on Oct. 24 that 270 dialysis patients could lose treatment within days as fuel and medical supplies run down, Al Jazeera reported from the Yemeni city.

The warning points to a wider health-system squeeze: the World Health Organization said on Oct. 22 that 42 health facilities in Taiz city had reported severe shortages.

Dialysis cuts deepen

Dialysis, a treatment that filters waste and excess fluid from blood, has already been reduced at the Republican Hospital’s centre. Dr Essam Mahyoub Dahan, the centre’s director, told Al Jazeera sessions had been cut from four hours to two and a half hours.

“Because of the siege and the shortage of diesel and medical solutions, we have recently been forced to reduce dialysis sessions from four hours to just two and a half,” Dahan said. “We know this is not adequate, but we have no choice if we are to keep the centre operating for as long as possible before it shuts down completely.”

Dahan said stocks of specialised dialysis solutions were close to being depleted. He said supplies normally arrive from Yemen’s Ministry of Health every three months, but a delivery due earlier in October did not reach the city after the renewed Houthi siege began in the first week of October following Houthi advances in the Taiz countryside.

Taiz’s health office said in an Oct. 12 statement that 1,110 kidney-failure patients across the governorate depended on dialysis services. It said hospitals in the governorate collectively provide about 210 dialysis sessions a day.

Fuel shortage spreads

Hospitals in Taiz rely heavily on diesel generators because much of the city’s electricity infrastructure was destroyed during Yemen’s 11-year war and has not been restored. Dr Shaheed al-Ameri, deputy director-general for technical affairs at the Republican Hospital, told Al Jazeera the hospital had no reserve diesel and was buying fuel almost daily on the black market at five times pre-siege prices.

“A very large part of this suffering is because of the shortage of diesel,” al-Ameri said. He said some hospital departments had already suspended operations and warned that continued restrictions could lead to “a complete and comprehensive collapse of healthcare services.”

The WHO said hospitals and ambulances in Taiz require at least 156,000 litres of fuel a month to keep operating. It said diesel shortages also threaten oxygen production, water pumping, vaccine refrigeration and sanitation services, increasing disease risks among displaced families and other vulnerable groups.

Taiz’s health office warned on Oct. 12 that restrictions on fuel deliveries could shut medical oxygen plants. Taysir al-Samei, the office’s media officer, told Al Jazeera that operating theatres, inpatient wards, intensive care units and incubators for premature babies all depend on oxygen.

At the Republican Hospital, al-Ameri said laboratory reagents had fallen to 10% to 15% of previous levels, while about half of the medicines normally available were out of stock. He said prices for remaining medicines had doubled.

The report said fighting and shelling around Taiz had increased the number of wounded people needing emergency care, adding pressure on hospitals already short of surgical supplies, anaesthetics and intravenous fluids. Taiz was previously under complete Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016.

Amnesty International called on the Houthis on Thursday to reopen roads into and around Taiz, saying the closure of the main road between the city and Aden threatened hundreds of thousands of civilians’ access to food, water and healthcare. The United Nations also urged the Houthis to allow humanitarian aid and essential goods to enter without obstruction, according to Al Jazeera.

The Al Jazeera report did not include a Houthi response to the hospital warnings or to the appeals from international organisations.