HIBAPRESS – Ahmed Al-Masaad
The prevention of loading medical equipment and supplies from the Al-Talssint Primary Healthcare Hospital and directing them towards the Jarada Provincial Hospital has sparked widespread controversy in the region and on social media. In light of the circulation of information describing the "smuggling" of this equipment, the responsible authorities have come forward to clarify the circumstances and present the official account of the event.
The details of the incident trace back to a technical malfunction in the surgical complex machinery of the Jarada Provincial Hospital. This prompted the Provincial Delegation of Health in Jarada, in coordination with its counterpart in the Figuig province and with the approval of the Regional Directorate of Health and Social Protection in the Oriental Region, to arrange a "temporary loan" of medical equipment from the Al-Talssint Primary Healthcare Hospital. According to official data, this step was framed within the framework of institutional coordination and cooperation among the health facilities affiliated with the region, with the aim of overcoming the technical malfunction, ensuring the continuity of health services to citizens, and enhancing the efficiency of utilizing available resources. However, the stopping of the truck and the prevention of equipment transfer aborted the process in its infancy.
Protests and outright rejection were witnessed around the Al-Talssint Primary Healthcare Hospital by local activists, some health workers, and residents who expressed their fears of the vital equipment being emptied from the health institution at the expense of the region's patients' services. In the face of this tension and popular dissatisfaction, the concerned authorities decided to completely cancel the loan and abandon the transfer of equipment, in order to de-escalate the situation and respond to the pulse of the local street.
In the same context, the same sources emphasized that what was circulated through some media outlets and social media platforms regarding a "smuggling operation" of medical equipment is "false information with no basis in reality." The Regional Directorate of Health and Social Protection in the Oriental Region confirmed that the matter was nothing more than an administrative and temporary measure falling within the framework of regional solidarity mechanisms and hospital crisis management, rejecting any other interpretations of an incident that was contained and resolved by the final decision not to transfer the concerned equipment.
