The Head of the Nephrology Unit at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Majda Mousa, has warned that the stocks of kidney disease tools are barely sufficient to run the dialysis centres for another two weeks.

Dr. Mousa explained in statements to The Libya Observer on Wednesday that the amount transferred to the Medical Supply Department from the Central Bank of Libya falls far short of the health sector's requirements.

The Medical Supply Department has to address the barriers and bottlenecks of all the health units and departments with the specified amount, which means providing "a little bit of everything" and thus returning to square one, Dr. Mousa says.

She confirmed that procedures for purchasing the kidney unit's needs are already underway, but the bureaucracy could put the lives of kidney patients at stake.

"It must be borne in mind that the shipping process takes 45 days at the least, while the tools hardly suffice for two weeks,"

Dr. Mousa stressed that the ready availability of stocks is necessary to avert the disruptions of supplies and to avoid the costly use of air freight.

According to Dr. Mousa, the Medical Supply Department resorts in urgent cases to ship the cargo by air and sometimes has to reduce the amount of the shipment in order to pay the air freight high costs.