Several hospitals in Haiti report to AyiboPost a problem with the supply of medical supplies and a dire lack of healthcare workers as patients continue to flood in
In Tabarre, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) receives ten patients, including those seriously injured by gunfire, per day. To cope with the unusual influx, the institution added more than twenty beds, according to revelations to AyiboPost by director Jean Marc Biquet.
Due to gang violence in recent days, Haiti’s ports and airport are closed. MSF and other hospitals fear a “stock shortage” of medical supplies in a context where blood remains difficult to find while doctors encounter difficulties getting to work.
MSF continues to work, but “we are worried,” admits Biquet.
Out of stock well before the deterioration of the security situation, the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH), the largest hospital center in the country, is today out of service, according to the declarations of its director Jude Milcé at AyiboPost.
The closure of this center, and many others, puts extraordinary pressure on the few hospitals still operating in Port-au-Prince.
“We are overwhelmed by events,” Jean Philippe Lerbourg, medical director at La Paix University Hospital in Delmas 33, tells AyiboPost.
From February 29 to March 7, 2024, the center received 69 projectile victims and dozens of other injuries. “Pregnant women are flocking to the hospital because of the closure of other structures,” reports Lerbourg.
At the Saint-Boniface hospital in Fonds-des-Blancs, it happens that doctors attempt “operations” without having blood in stock, Dr. Guerrier Berthony, head of the gynecology department of this establishment, reveals to AyiboPost.
On Thursday February 22, 2024, the head of the National Blood Safety Program announced a production problem at the service level due to a lack of materials and reagents.
This problem persists as Saint-Boniface records an unusual influx of patients, according to Dr. Berthony.
The Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH), the largest hospital center in the country, is today out of service, according to statements by its director Jude Milcé to AyiboPost.
Oxygen supply companies in Haiti are also caught up in gang clashes. This greatly affects their production capacity.
“We are having difficulty finding raw materials to produce oxygen due to the closure of ports,” Bernard Chauvet, CEO of Industrial Dynamics, explains to AyiboPost.
Depending on demand, the company produced 400 oxygen bottles per day. But today, according to Chauvet, the structure neither produces nor sells any tubes.
In this situation, hospitals must adapt.
La Paix University Hospital uses 100 oxygen tanks every three days.
Because of the current shortage, “we only use pure oxygen for cases that are very serious,” says the hospital center’s general director, Dr. Paul Junior Fontilus.
Interior view of an abandoned HUEH room with patients.
Zanmi Lasante has existed since 1983 and provides care in the poorest and most remote places in the country through seventeen health institutions.
Having difficulty supplying its network with inputs and medicines due to gangs occupying national roads, the institution is setting its sights on air transport, according to its director Venia Vicieres.
This input crisis looms over a structural problem of emigration of doctors, boosted even more in recent years by the economic and security crises.
Since the last fiscal year, HUEH has lost 180 members of its staff.
The hospital center had 1,032 employees for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. This figure increased to 852, according to data provided to AyiboPost by Ermeline Delva, head of the human resources department.
Rebecca Gaëtano has been an intern at HUEH for almost a year.
“As a young doctor, I find this situation difficult,” she told AyiboPost.
The mentality of the staff is severely tested.
“Sometimes I feel on the verge of burnout and this has repercussions on my performance as a healthcare worker,” says the doctor who had to leave his family in Gressier in the south of the country due to gang violence. armed to move in with a relative in Carrefour Feuille.
After the gang invasion of the slum in August 2023, Gaëtano moved back in with a relative near the HUEH.
Patients with nowhere to seek refuge remained at HUEH, already abandoned due to gang violence in the area.
The institution has a dormitory, but it is “unsanitary”. There is “no running water, not enough beds and all the needs linked to a comfortable and suitable facility are not respected”, according to Gaëtano.
Studies report that 40% of doctors trained in Haiti flee the country. 13% of them find refuge in the United States.
Read also: Haiti in danger: insecurity pushes specialized doctors to leave the country
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in a 2017 report, the country has on average 5.9 doctors or nurses, and 6.5 health professionals for every 10,000 inhabitants. These figures are very far from the minimum WHO recommendations.
La Paix University Hospital has lost several of its senior doctors. Most of those still in the country fear going to the hospital.
“Before, we performed ten to fifteen operations per day,” says Dr. Fontilus. “We have now increased to five operations per day.”
At Saint-Damien hospital, the only pediatric oncological hospital in the country, the number of patients is decreasing due to the problem of insecurity in the Tabarre area, according to the communications officer of the Hadson institution Archange Albert.
A corpse abandoned at the Haiti State University Hospital in early March 2024.
From 2019 to 2023, the service increased to 89, 68, 61, 47 and 42 cases respectively.
The Fontaine hospital in Cité Soleil – whose area was invaded by bandits in November 2023 – finds itself understaffed. “Eight doctors out of fourteen left the country via the humanitarian parole program,” informs its manager, Jose Ulysse, who adds that the center takes care of around ten babies abandoned by their parents.
In a note published on Wednesday March 6, 2024, the Association of Private Hospitals of Haiti (AHPH) launches an SOS on the critical state of hospital centers.
“The widespread insecurity situation prevailing in the country has seriously hampered our operations,” the note reads. “Our medical staff are experiencing enormous difficulty in traveling safely, thereby jeopardizing continuity of care.”
Note from the Association of Private Hospitals of Haiti (AHPH) on the deterioration of the situation in the country affecting hospital centers.
According to the AHPH, many hospitals have been victims of violent attack and vandalism, and “we are facing severe shortages of essential medical inputs, fuel and oxygen, seriously compromising our ability to respond to urgent medical needs of our patients.”
Par Fenel Pélissier, Lucnise Duquereste et Widlore Mérancourt
Cover image: An inconsolable patient cries for help from heaven at the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH). | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
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