Report: Yemen’s Health sector in critical state due to running out of fuel; warnings of a humanitarian disaster

On Mar 12, 2022

The health sector is facing difficult conditions; it negatively affects the services provided to patients and puts their lives at risk of death due to the intransigence of the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression coalition and its continued detention of oil derivatives ships and the prevention of their entry into the port of Hodeida province.

The United States’ terrorism against civilians and innocents has become clear and embodied through its sponsorship on one hand, on the other hand, it funds and supports aggression against the Yemeni people, tightening the land and sea blockade on Yemen, which threatens to stop the health sector services and threaten the lives of thousands of patients.

If the United Nations and the international community do not act to fulfill their humanitarian responsibilities, the health situation will experience a real catastrophe and tragedy as a result of the lack of electrical power needed by hospitals, health centers, and facilities.

Hospitals, health centers, and facilities rely entirely on oil derivatives to supply them with energy to operate medical, diagnostic, and therapeutic devices, ambulances and emergency vehicles, and transport doctors, paramedics, and health workers.

Last week, Public Health Minister Taha al-Mutawakel announced that the health sector had entered a critical condition due to the continued detention of fuel ships by the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression coalition.

Minister al-Mutawakel warned against stopping health and medical facilities, as a result of the lack of oil derivatives, blaming the aggression coalition for the catastrophic repercussions on the health sector services due to the tightening of the siege on the Yemeni people.

He considered preventing the entry of oil and the arbitrary actions of the aggression countries as a full-fledged war crime that led to the deterioration of the health and service sectors after being subjected to bombing and systematic destruction for seven years.

The Minister said that there are 145 government hospitals that need 1.5 million liters of diesel per month, while oncology centers, limbs, laboratories, and dialysis centers need 15,000 liters per month as well.

He added 184 private hospitals consume 3 million liters, as well as the need for 131 clinics and medical facilities to 150 thousand. liters, in addition to 500,000 liters to operate 15 oxygen and pharmaceutical plants.

In turn, the Federation of Yemeni Private Hospitals made an urgent appeal to provide hospitals’ needs for oil derivatives.

In a statement, the federation announced a state of emergency in private hospitals, due to the lack of oil derivatives and the high cost of obtaining fuel, leading to a complete inability to provide medical services, keeping their doors closed to patients.

The statement stressed that medical services decreased by 50 percent, and a number of departments were closed in some hospitals as a result of the continued prevention of entry of oil derivatives by the aggression.

The Federation’s statement also reported deaths in intensive care, emergency, and operations departments, in addition to the inability of hospitals to store medicines for chronic diseases such as diabetes and tumors.

It warned that the lack of oil derivatives reaching hospitals and the high cost of fuel would lead to a complete inability to provide medical services, pointing to a decline in the ability of private hospitals to obtain oil derivatives by more than 85 percent.

The statement stressed that the private health sector is an essential pillar in the country’s health sector system.

More than 100 central and rural hospitals issued statements denouncing the criminal arrogance of the aggression represented in preventing the entry of oil derivatives.

They also stressed that the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression is a major cause of Yemeni suffering, holding the aggression responsible for the catastrophic repercussions on the health sector services due to the lack of oil derivatives.