jordan pulse -

​Hospitals in the city of Taiz, southwestern Yemen, face the risk of shutting down within 48 hours as diesel reserves needed to run electrical generators approach total depletion, in a crisis threatening the continuation of medical services, particularly in dialysis units, intensive care, and neonatal incubators.
​The Director of Al-Thawra General Hospital, Abdulrahman Al-Sabri, warned that fuel exhaustion would lead to the shutdown of vital departments, including hemodialysis, emergency, intensive care, emergency obstetrics, neonatal incubators, and the burn center. He explained that the hospital relies entirely on electrical generators and possesses no alternative energy sources.
​Al-Sabri stated that the remaining medicine inventory is insufficient for more than two weeks amidst difficulties in securing medical supplies and high transportation costs. He noted that the hospital receives approximately 620 patients daily, including 120 emergency cases, 250 chronic disease clinic patients, and 120 beneficiaries of dialysis services.
​The hospital houses around 400 patients suffering from kidney failure, while daily dialysis sessions do not exceed 120 cases, making the center's potential shutdown a direct threat to patients whose lives depend on regular treatment sessions.
​The challenges are not limited to fuel and medicine; the hospital also faces a severe water shortage after its supplies from the Al-Dhabab area were disrupted. Al-Sabri explained that water is essential for operating the dialysis, burn, surgical, intensive care, and incubator departments, warning that using currently available saline water could deteriorate medical equipment and compromise service safety.
​40% of Hospitals Out of Service
​The ramifications of the fuel crisis have extended across the health sector throughout Taiz. The Deputy Director of Health Affairs for the Governorate, Ilan Abdulhaq, revealed that roughly 40% of hospitals have ceased offering services, while the operational capacity of remaining hospitals and health centers has dropped by 50% due to the lack of fuel, particularly diesel.
​According to Abdulhaq, most health centers have shut down, while primary hospitals continue to receive the sick and wounded with limited capabilities, despite their fuel reserves nearing complete depletion.
​Alongside fuel shortages, health facilities face obstacles in securing medical supplies and delays in their delivery. Khaldoon Abdulbaqi Noman, an administrative official at the Public Health and Population Office in the governorate, stated that shipments of dialysis solutions—which previously took 30 to 35 hours to arrive from Aden to Taiz—now require at least 10 days and can stretch up to two weeks due to long routes, inspection procedures, and transport difficulties.
​Noman noted that hospitals face costly choices to secure fuel, ranging from purchasing it from Houthi-controlled areas at elevated prices or bringing it from Aden while absorbing transport costs and associated procedures.
​The crisis coincides with a 150% rise in transportation fares, as bus passenger fares rose from 200 to 500 Rials, creating further hardship for patients and health staff attempting to reach medical facilities.
​The media officer at the Health Office, Tayseer Al-Samei, warned that the continuation of the fuel crisis could lead to major hospitals going out of service, pointing out that approximately two million people in Taiz rely on these health facilities, including centers for dialysis, oncology, and cardiovascular diseases.
​Decline in Patient Numbers and Incubation Shutdowns
​The economic crisis and rising costs of living and transportation have impacted families' ability to access medical services, forcing some families to delay hospital visits except in extreme emergencies.
​At the Yemeni-Swedish Hospital for Maternal and Child Health, daily visitor numbers dropped from around 500 cases to between 70 and 90 cases—a decrease of 80% to 85%.
​Furthermore, 30 out of 40 incubators in the neonatal and premature infant intensive care unit have gone out of service, representing 75% of total incubators, according to Noman.
​At Al-Thawra Hospital, the number of internal medicine clinic visitors dropped from nearly 120 cases daily to approximately 24 cases—an 80% decline—highlighting the severe difficulties patients face in accessing and affording treatment.
​Indicators of Health Service Deterioration
​Statistics issued by the Public Health and Population Office in Taiz Governorate demonstrate a decline in health services alongside an increase in mortality and malnutrition in besieged areas compared to the pre-siege period.
​According to the statistics, the number of kidney failure patients benefiting from services decreased from 1,110 patients before the siege to 516 patients after, representing a 53.5% drop. Monthly dialysis sessions also declined from 8,880 to 4,128 sessions.
​In neonatal and premature care services, active incubators dropped from 160 to 78, a 51.3% reduction, while monthly infant beneficiaries fell from 592 to 288 children.
​Conversely, neonatal deaths rose from 95 cases monthly before the siege to 132 cases after, a 38.9% increase, while maternal mortality rose from two cases to 11 cases monthly—a 450% surge.
​The statistics also recorded an increase in children suffering from malnutrition from 455 to 528 children (a 16% rise), while children registered in therapeutic feeding centers rose from 36 to 45.
​Source: Rum News Agency