Scenes inside the emergency room of Addis Abeba's Menelik II Referral Hospital were nothing short of chaotic last week. Frantic staff members were rushing about, struggling to care for a crowd of patients needing urgent medical attention. Stretchers were clogging the dimly lit hallways, which, though relatively hushed, echoed with the whispers of patients and the occasional grunts of discomfort. The air carried the smell of sanitary chemicals distinct to medical facilities, made slightly overwhelming by the heat the capital has been experiencing in recent weeks.

Near Jan Meda, on Russia Street, Menelik II Hospital is one of the oldest, opened in 1909. However, the prestigious history was overshadowed by the goings on in its wards. Nurses were shaking with pent-up anxiety and distress, checking on patients seated on long benches pushed up against the beige-coloured hallways. One of the nurses was visibly irritated when patients approached her, asking for accommodation.

Emergency departments (ER) are ideally meant to serve as brief ports in trouble, with patients staying just long enough before transferred to other sections or sent home with instructions to follow up with various maladies. But the ER section of Menelik II Referral Hospital has transformed into an overflow unit. Some of the patients seated in wheelchairs were hooked up to IVs, while others spoke quietly to medical staff.

The atmosphere was quite the opposite in a separate hospital section designated for admitting elective surgery patients.

Abebaw Molla, 30, sat in that section last week, supporting his weary head with his hands. A father of two, Abebaw had come to the hospital without an appointment. It was his third visit in the last couple of months.

Five months ago, he underwent a small bowel resection operation at the hospital - a surgery to remove part of his small intestine, which had been damaged. Doctors made an incision around his right kidney to connect a tube to a colostomy bag, where faeces would be passed until Abebaw's bowels healed. The surgery was a success, and he was instructed to return after three months for another procedure to close the wound.

The past few months, however, were tumultuous at best for Abebaw. He was glued to a chair, unable to work. Before his surgery, he was the family's breadwinner, working as a daily labourer at construction sites.

“The wellbeing of my family is in danger,” he told Fortune.

Abebaw thought of little else but the follow-up procedure that would allow him to regain a semblance of normalcy. However, the relief has not yet come to pass. He does not know when to get an appointment for the second surgery. A debilitating shortage of anaesthesia drugs hit hospitals across the city, forcing doctors to suspend surgery procedures. It has been a month since Menelik II Hospital has admitted scheduled patients for surgery. No elective surgery was conducted at the hospital for two weeks.

“We're struggling to cope with the mounting need for surgeries in the ER section,” a doctor told Fortune.

With 800 beds and over 2,300 staff, Menelik II Hospital is one of five referral hospitals under the supervision of the Addis Abeba City Administration. It treats an average of 15,000 patients each day. Others include Tirunesh Beijing, Gandhi, Zewditu, and Yekatit 12 hospitals. The municipality also oversees a little more than 100 health centres in the capital.

A receptionist sitting behind a worn desk at Menelik II Hospital could not do much for Abebaw except put his name on the waiting list.

There are a dozen drugs necessary to perform surgery. Anaesthetic suxamethonium, a muscle relaxant drug, facilitates windpipe intubation and mechanical ventilation procedures. It is a fast-acting drug used in emergency surgery. It was unavailable in Menelik Hospital. Supplies of cisatracurium, ketamine, and atropine – also anaesthetics – fare no better.

The shortages were visible at other health centres.

St. Paul's Hospital in the northwest of the capital used to stock 10 of the 12 drugs used for surgical procedures. It is the second-largest hospital after Tikur Anbessa (Black Lion), which houses 1,000 beds and employs over 3,400 people. The hospital's administration ordered three months of medicine stock at a given time from the Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency, a federal agency importing and supplying medications and medical supplies to public health institutions.

The Hospital stocks around 1,200 types of medication. It requires at least 400 units of suxamethonium a month to conduct surgeries. Each unit carries 20mg of the substance.

“We've only two weeks' stock of suxamethonium,” said Berhane Tsehay, a representative of St. Paul's medical director.

The shortages have forced the medical team to stop surgery for non-emergency patients.

The dearth of vital medications has become increasingly common in the capital and elsewhere in the country, mainly due to foreign currency unavailability and disruptions in global supply chains. The predicament is in sharp contrast to the 10 billion Br spent importing medications over the first half of this year. It is not sufficient to cover the need. Prices are on the rise, too.

Type-1 diabetic patients have to pay 310 Br to get medicine to cover their needs for a few weeks, double what they were paying a year ago. It is estimated close to three million people live with diabetes in Ethiopia.