Diesel rationing means households and businesses across Lebanon spend hours in darkness while the electricity is out. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)
BEIRUT — “A number of hospitals” risk shutting down their generators “within hours” due to lack of diesel, the syndicate of private hospital owners warned on Sunday, calling on officials to intervene immediately to save patients’ lives.
Here’s what we know:
• “A number of hospitals, including university hospitals, are under threat of having their generators shut down within a few hours due to lack of diesel,” the syndicate said in a statement. “We warned of this situation several days ago,” the statement continues, adding that “the lives of patients are threatened, … especially with the new wave of coronavirus that we are witnessing.” The syndicate also lamented the slow and limited delivery of diesel to hospitals, while, it said, the fuel product is blatantly being sold on the black market.
• Hospitals are presently close to completely reliant on generators for power due to the almost complete stoppage of supply from the state-owned power company Electricité du Liban.
• The syndicate called on President Michel Aoun and caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab to intervene immediately. “The refineries and warehouses in Zahrani and Tripoli, as well as the warehouses of private companies, must be opened today, and the diesel must be delivered immediately to hospitals,” the statement said.
• Speaking Sunday with local TV channel LBCI, president of the private hospital owners' syndicate Sleiman Haroun warned of an impending “health catastrophe.” Haroun added that “those responsible [for the situation] must react today and be held responsible for the death of any patient in a hospital due to lack of power.”