The death of the baby of a Tunisian woman who was unable to give birth for lack of medical personnel in the city of Kef, in the North-West, has caused a great stir since May 1. Without finding a specialist in the hospitals of the region, the young woman was refused by a clinic, for lack of money for a deposit. She lost her baby and had to undergo a hysterectomy, because a hemorrhage started for lack of care. The deputies of Kef alerted President Kaïs Saïed to this tragedy which testifies to the problems of the public health system in the country.
With our correspondent in Tunis, Lilia Blaise
It is a case which, almost a week after the tragedy, continues to shake public opinion. Two arrest warrants were issued on Friday May 5: one against the supervisor of the Kef regional hospital, where the young woman could not be admitted for lack of a specialist, the other against of the private clinic which refused him hospitalization.
A judicial investigation has been opened for criminal abstention, a crime which is punishable by five years of imprisonment. Tunisian justice has worked hard on this tragedy, placing in custody nearly a dozen people the next day.
This fatal negligence reveals especially the deterioration of the health system in Tunisia, a recurring problem in several regions of the country, where hospitals suffer from a lack of specialists and a medical desert. Last year, in the same region, a woman gave birth alone in a hospital toilet due to lack of medical attention. In 2015, several women died during childbirth in southern Tunisia due to the lack of obstetricians.
Gynecologists are also less and less present in regional hospitals. Since the 2011 revolution, the flight of doctors to foreign countries is on the rise : over the past five years, 3,300 skills have emigrated for better working conditions.
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