Doctors: South Darfur running short of med supplies

Sudan

Blood transfusion bags, anaesthesia, gauze, solutions, and suture threads are among the medical supplies that are in critically short supply in the South Darfur capital of Nyala, as medical facilities are swamped with an influx of conflict-related cases. Health care in South Kordofan is suffering from a shortage of medicines. In El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, medical staff is still on strike.

Dr Suheiba Mubarak, acting director of the South Darfur Ministry of Health, reported a shortage of a long list of medicines and medical aids in Nyala.

She attributed the scarcity of medicines and consumables to unusually high consumption due to the increase in cases related to battles between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in and around the city.

“All hospitals in the city are receiving dead and wounded as a result of the ongoing fighting, in addition to the presence of bodies of undetected deaths in the neighbourhoods,” she told Radio Dabanga.

The hospitals in Nyala North and South were operating normally, with some health centres increasing. She said the Nyala Teaching Hospital earlier stopped operating for a week for technical reasons before returning to work more than a month ago.

The city has gone through difficult days during the last period, Mubarak said, noting the difficulty of patients reaching any health facility due to clashes in all directions.

Scarce

Sister Batoul, director of the Ministry of Health and Social Development in South Kordofan, reported on Monday that the dialysis supplies at the dialysis centre in the state are sufficient for only two weeks.

In a press statement following a meeting chaired by the acting governor, Mohamed Ibrahim, in Kadugli, on the provision of health services in South Kordofan, she also said that they discussed prospects for coordination with relevant organisations in the following flow of medicine supplies to the various localities of the state.

The meeting also examined the scarcity of lifesaving and emergency medicines that the state suffers from, noting that the state needs the arrival of other quantities to meet the actual need, especially the eastern part of the state.

Strike

In El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, medical staff is still on strike. On Thursday last week, they downed tools, demanding their financial and professional dues.

The demands include the payment of salaries and incentives of the medical staff of the past months, an improved rotation schedule for the doctors in the hospitals, improving the work environment, providing aids, equipment and work devices, and improved security policies.

The strike includes emergency departments of the hospitals, with the exception of kidney, women’s, obstetrics, and nursery departments.