St James Hospital in Tripoli is operating with skeleton staff, with the majority of the resident expatriate medical and nursing staff having left the country, this newspaper is informed.

Director of International Operations at Saint James Hospital Jean Claude Muscat explained that the situation in Tripoli seems to be pretty much what the media has reported in recent days, with fighting between two rival militia groups concentrated on the outskirts of Tripoli.

Some staff, including the General Manager, chose to stay on in Libya, and if any patients are being treated, it is with the help of Libyan staff. The group stopped all foreign doctors visiting clinics in Tripoli a few weeks ago, and as such there are no specialists and doctors travelling to Libya at the moment.

Director at Saint James Hospital Maria Bugeja told this newsroom that St James Hospital in Malta is on standby, so if needed, the government can use its services in the same way that it did during the last Libyan crisis. Back in 2011, non-critical patients were sent to St James.

The St James Hospital group were in the process of building their second hospital in Libya prior to the current conflict, however works have been suspended.

A few injured Libyans have already been brought to Malta and have received treatment.

In Malta, a crisis centre is making around 1000 calls a day to Maltese residents still living in Libya. The crisis centre operates 24/7, however was not specifically set up for the Libya crisis and is a permanent department, the media was told.

The crisis centre forms part of a government contingency unit that also incorporates elements of the Maltese Armed Forces, the Ministries for health and Internal Affairs as well as the police.