Thousands of items of medical supplies imported to North Cyprus from Turkey just prior to the coronavirus pandemic had gone missing from the storeroom hospital in the northern part of Nicosia, it was reported by Turkish Cypriot media on Wednesday.
However, the hospital’s chief physician Adil Ozgilkan said an investigation had been carried out and no abuse or theft was found.
Havadis newspaper earlier reported that warehouses had come up short on supplies when the hospital, which is being used as the pandemic facility in the north, needed them. It said 7,200 masks, 130,000 gloves, 3,250 protective suits, 100 sets of goggles, and 48 litres of liquid disinfectant appeared to be missing.
The paper questioned how such a large amount of supplies could have been used in the space of a week in a hospital with 108 patients, 45 doctors and 150 nurses and other staff.
It said the assistant chief physician at the hospital had been in charge of the supplies but had allegedly resigned, something he later denied to another newspaper.
Yeni Duzen newspaper said the ‘undersecretary for health’ Ali Chaygiur told them it was not normal for such a large amount of consumables and materials to be used and that there had been an investigation. He said however there did not seem to be an issue of theft but more of overuse of the supplies.
According to the ‘official’ 25,000 protective gloves were used in the Nicosia hospital alone in a week which was abnormal, he said.
He said the warehouses had been stocked with 195,000 gloves, 7,500 masks and 7,768 protective suits. Turkey had warned them, he added that it would send an amount of supplies proportional to the population of the north and had called for use of the supplies with caution.
“Because the aid we received from Turkey through donations or purchases was very large, there was a notion to sell some of it in the south. But there was no official action, only a thought,” said Chaygiur.
Some reports said the missing items had been sold to Italy but no such evidence has been found, according to the doctor.
A week ago, an unspecified amount of supplies plus 2,000 chloroquine pills were sent by the Cyprus government to the north through a crossing point following a request by the Turkish Cypriot leader.