For Mira Hasbini, Lebanon's disastrous financial crisis came down to something very basic: surgeons couldn't find enough screws to fix her aged mother's broken bones.
After a fall that broke her elbow and leg, Hasbini's mother Sahar was rushed to hospital where surgeons wanted to insert six screws. But there was a shortage.
Her mother was put on morphine and the hospital, which Hasbini did not want to name, found the screws a day later.
The financial crisis that is gripping Lebanon, described by the World Bank as one of the deepest depressions in modern history, is taking its toll on the healthcare system
Hospitals are cutting down on elective surgeries to reserve what is left of anesthetics and other medical supplies for emergency procedures.
The shortage is set to deepen as the government, which is politically paralyzed, deeply indebted and struggling to raise funds from potential donors, warned in early April that money for subsidies would run out in about two months.
The country has been subsidizing fuel, wheat, medicine and other basic goods since last year, which costs the state around $6 billion a year.
The program has drained reserves, which dipped from over $30 billion before the start of the crisis to around $15 billion in March. The Central Bank did not give an updated figure on reserves when asked by Reuters.
The bank said last week it would not dip into its mandatory reserves to pay around $1.3 billion it owes in medical supply costs, asking the government to find a solution to the shortage.
Karim Gebara, who heads Lebanon's Pharmaceutical Importers Association, says the situation is set to get even worse in June, with stocks completely depleted as suppliers abroad demand payment and cancel orders.
International firms, which sold the medicine to Lebanese importers based on their history of creditworthiness, can no longer wait after payments have been delayed for months.
Lebanon's caretaker health minister Hamad Hasan said this week the central bank needed to maintain its commitment to supporting the medical sector. He said he had visited the bank asking for the release of funds to no avail.
The Central Bank did not respond to requests for comment.
Sleiman Haroun, who heads Lebanon's syndicate of private hospitals, says the situation will get even worse if Lebanon's political deadlock continues.
Outside the hospitals, pharmacists say they haven't been given their quotas in weeks and as pills for chronic conditions and over-the-counter medications are running out.
Diabetes, heart and blood pressure patients, who need medication daily, had been forced to rely on alternatives to their usual pills, but in recent weeks the situation has worsened badly, says Mazen Bsat, a Beirut pharmacy owner.
Lebanon has been without a government, with the current one acting in a caretaker capacity, since shortly after the Aug. 4 chemical explosion that destroyed the port of Beirut and devastated downtown areas, killing hundreds.
Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri has been at loggerheads with President Michel Aoun for months over naming ministers, but only a new cabinet can enact reforms to unlock much needed foreign aid.
REUTERS