Bahrain’s Hostile Hospital

Shenaz Kermalli

HAVANA TIMES, April 8 (IPS) — Salmaniya Medical Complex, once one of the most renowned medical facilities in the Gulf and a jewel in the crown of Bahrain’s public healthcare system, has been transformed into a virtual ghost town.

Its gates and front entrance are barricaded with checkpoints and masked military officers, armed with rifles. Its emergency room, once the busiest in the country, is empty.

And, according to eyewitness reports collected by Human Rights Watch, hospital staff say security and military forces have sought out and threatened, beaten and detained patients with protest-related injuries.

These patients are then systematically segregated from the rest of the patient population and transferred to the sixth floor, where they are virtually inaccessible to anyone, including family.

“There are more military officers in the hospital than patients,” says Faraz Sanei, a Human Rights Watch observer who has recently been inside Salmaniya. “It is not a normal environment or safe haven for patients. Patients and staff have told us there’s a security lockdown and doctors from there are very frightened to speak.

“The fact that it’s empty means there’s not much of an inflow of patients going in. People don’t want to go there because they’re afraid,” he adds. …more