Abiad Announces UNHCR Donation for RHUH, Urges Hospitals to Increase Bed Capacity

Firas Abiad, director general of the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital, said on Tuesday that the hospital received a donation from the UNHCR Lebanon enabling it to receive more coronavirus patients

“Last Wednesday, RHUH received a kind donation from UNHCR Lebanon. The donation consisted of 10 beds, ventilators, and monitors, sufficient to expand our ICU capacity. The challenge given to our engineering and maintenance team: how quickly can we set them up?” he said on Twitter.

“It took 6 days,” he said, adding that “tomorrow, RHUH will start admitting critical patients to its new 10-bed ICU expansion. Total bed capacity is now 54 adult and 5 neonatal ICU beds, in addition to 72 regular beds. Our nursing department has been diligently training our new recruits for the job,”emphasized Abiad.

He stated that the hospital has admitted 20 mostly critical patients to the ER. “Daily for the past 2 weeks, more than 20 mostly critical patients were admitted in our emergency room, waiting for a bed. Despite our new expansion, I do not expect our staff in ER to get any respite. There are a lot of sick Covid patients, and this is not a time for rest.”

“In these dire circumstances, it is the moral duty of all hospitals to increase their bed capacity as much as possible. Covid, however, cannot be defeated in hospitals. In the time of Coronavirus, we should celebrate when we finally close ICUs, not when we open them,” concluded Abiad.