Since the resumption of clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border, the Ministry of Health has reactivated an emergency plan in order to anticipate, in the event of an escalation, the response of medical establishments.
A lady in a black suit pushes the door to the command room of the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It’s 4 p.m., Tuesday, January 9, and Wahida Ghalayini, the coordinator, asks her team for a complete update of the situation:
“- Any deaths today?”
– Yes ma’am, four.
– And yesterday ?
– Zero.”
On the fourth floor of the building, located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital, the traditional reception room of the ministry has changed decor. In place of the podium, a wall of screens, cards, and, in the center of the room, a rectangular table on which employees receive and sort all data that comes back in real time from hospitals across the country. NOTshadow of dead, injured, nationality of victims, their sex, their age… In blue, private establishments; in red, those in the public sector.
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Since the resumption of clashes on the border with Israel in southern Lebanon in October, the Ministry of Health has reactivated an emergency plan to prepare, “in case”, to a larger conflict with the Jewish state. As of January 16, 147 people were killed and 650 injured, according to figures obtained by franceinfo from the Ministry of Health. Civilians of course, and fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement. In mid-January, around a hundred people were also hospitalized.
Within the crisis unit, no one seems to be paying attention to the television channels broadcasting live images of the new destruction in the south of the country. On the right, a green histogram lists the number of deaths, day by day. The deadliest so far: October 23, with 34 victims.
“We usually”
In three months, in Lebanon, more than 3,000 members of the healthcare staff, nurses and doctors, have been specially trained in war injuries. The Ministry of Health also carried out an inventory of more than 130 hospitals. “We checked blood reserves, the state of the operating rooms, team qualificationsummary Wahida Ghalayini. We are on continuous alert. We are preparing for war. Maybe it’s even tomorrow.”
And all scenarios are anticipated. If Beirut is bombed, the injured will have to be sent to hospitals in the north of the country, for example. “I shouldn’t say that, but we’re used to itestimates the coordinator of the crisis unit, by readjusting his glasses. We draw on the experience of the war in the summer of 2006, which lasted 33 days. At the time, Israel had divided Lebanon into several parts. So this time, we’re preparing for it. Hospital directors are told: ‘If you have to fend for yourself, if we can’t help you, this is what you will have to do.'”
At the end of the corridor, the Minister of Health is watching. Firas Abiad provides the Prime Minister with an update every evening. Like all members of the Lebanese government, he listens attentively to everyone’s comments on the state of the threat. Like Din early January, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “suggested that Hezbollah learns what Hamas has already learned in recent months: no terrorist is safe. We are determined to defend our citizens and ensure that northerners return home safely “.
Hospitals in crash test mode
Particular attention is paid to health centers located in areas where the bombings, and therefore the victims, are concentrated. In Sidon, considered the gateway to southern Lebanon, the Hammoud hospital organized a full-scale exercise at the beginning of December. For three hours, staff simulated the arrival of a large number of victims in the emergency room. In the role of the wounded, scouts. To imitate injuries, a professional makeup artist. But for the rest, “Everyone played their roletells a witness to franceinfo. Paramedics, doctors, surgeons, nurses, midwives, room attendants, security personnel…”.
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Fifty kilometers further south, the government hospital in Tire didn’t even have time to train. The comings and goings of stretchers with wounded people, real this time, began in October. As the crow flies, the city is only about twenty kilometers from the Israeli border. So close that the bombings sometimes vibrate the aging walls of the building. In the event of a red plan, the establishment would increase from 60 to 90 beds. In the rooms, “everything is ready, in case”. Upstairs, the operating theaters. Not very far, radiology.
After 100 days of clashes, 35 people have already been taken care of by the director, “Mr. Ali”, and his teams. “Ten after bombings and 25 after a white phosphorus attack.” Several NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, accuse the Israeli army of using these munitions, which cause burns, in areas where civilians live. Even if Israel denies these accusations, Amnesty calls for the opening of a war crimes investigation.
Health authorities in Beirut reminded doctors in Tire of the procedure to follow after this type of attack. “Construction gloves rather than traditional gloves. The injured person’s clothes in a plastic bag, close it immediately.”
Fear of staff shortages
Wahida Ghalayini promises: “Lhe hospitals of Lebanon are ready, really ready, to face war.” But in the shadow of the blocks operative, doctors contacted by franceinfo fear a lack of staff and therefore potential additional victims “if the worst were to happen to Lebanon.” Since the financial crisis of 2019, the Lebanese health system is already sick itself. Hundreds of professionals have put their coats in the closet to go work abroad.
To the hospital audience Rafic Hariri from Beirut, where Wahida Ghalayini is also director of care, “more than 100 nurses have left Lebanon. But we made a lot of effort, she assures. We have recruited around 200 nurses, we are in the process of training them quickly.”
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A member of the crisis unit slips him some information. 17.87, the emergency number set up to respond to the concerns of the Lebanese, has just exceeded the 400 calls mark in three months. “These are, for example, people who, in panic, want to know what they should do in the event of a bombing, where they should go, how they can find shelter. It’s up to us to give them solutions and answers.”
Wahida Ghalayini, too, is preparing “in any eventuality”. At home, she has just stocked up on food, checked the condition of her generator and even stocked up on batteries in the event of a power outage. The day before, she went to the store to buy a rechargeable lamp that she always keeps with her. “Just in case”.