Lebanese Health Sector is headed downhill!
Children are the First Victims of Hospital Collapse
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Report by Elia Nasrallah
Translation by Mary Yahchouchi
In the few past difficult days, Lebanese citizens woke up to good health news on the Coronavirus measures: the European Union included Lebanon on the white list, which means that the residents of the country are now allowed to travel non-essential trips to the member states of the Union without imposing the March 2020 measures on travelers. However, this glimmer of hope came in times of deepening crises that toppled the health and medical sector and hit it to the core, what about the citizens? Can they take any more blows?
The Lebanese citizen is deprived today of health and hospital services, and the country’s medical situation is life threatening. What is the reason? Rather, the reasons that are still worsening and suffocating the citizen on daily basis. The health sector went from limping to paralysis, and the people dread that the whole country might be next.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health is sounding the alarm, calling for help. Maybe by shedding the light on this bitter reality and its recent events, especially during the past weeks, the international community and concerned parties would try to save Lebanon, a wounded country mired in a whirlpool of crises all along its history.
The Citizen’s Health is in Danger
Initially, hospitals are facing an acute crisis of lack of equipment, reagents and medical supplies necessary to carry out laboratory tests and diagnose diseases, including the loss of dialysis supplies, which led to the suspension of this service. This problem led Lebanese hospitals to refrain from providing several health services and performing some surgeries. They are not accepting patients with no means to pay their hospital dues or who do not have large sums of money to pay for certain services and operations. The emigration of medical and nursing staff made matters worse and helped the deterioration of these services: 1,300 doctors left the country in May 2021, according to the Doctors Syndicate in Lebanon.
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The medical supplies sector is also suffering from a crisis in itself, as most companies stopped importing supplies due to complications between the Ministry of Health and the Medical Supplies Importers Syndicate, which makes it difficult to secure hospital supplies. On the other hand, the Ministry of Public Health is making efforts to confront the wave of monopolizing and storing medicines and medical supplies, as caretaker Minister of Public Health Dr. Hamad Hassan raided warehouses of merchants, monopolists and importers, that contained supplies subsidized by the state that were hidden from citizens.
These raids revealed scandals and loopholes, especially in manipulating the value of bills and prices of subsidized equipment, according to Minister Hassan, with a rate of 900 and 1,800%. One of the medical supplies even reached 2847% since its import value was around $3.8 and it was sold in the market at $112. Other products also showed a large difference in numbers between imports, according to the basket of subsidized goods, and sales, reaching 1009%, 1031%, or even 973%.
The Ministry of Health is following up its procedures to curb this supply crisis, as it has audited invoices submitted to Banque du Liban from companies importing medical supplies, implants and laboratory reagents and compared them with market prices. However, companies delivering supplies to hospitals and medical centers demanded the return of the collected financial difference on the grounds that the aforementioned medical equipment and supplies were not subsidized.
Health Crisis
Most medical laboratories suffer from a massive shortage of laboratory supplies necessary to provide their services, and the missing medicines crisis has burdened citizens trying to find one package of necessary medicine. Pharmacy owners organized many vigils due to the shortages of medicines, medical products and infant formula, accusing pharmaceutical companies of storing them in their warehouses without supervision. Still, some of them decided not to go on strike to meet their patients’ urgent needs.
The importers abstained from delivering medicines and health supplies because of the Central Bank not disbursing appropriations. 70% of the needed medicines are present in warehouses, including 87 different types of cancer and immunology medicines, according to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Health Committee Deputy Dr. Issam Araji. All that, knowing that companies importing medical supplies were profiting by 300%. Lebanon imports more than 80% of its medicine supplies in US dollars, but the Central Bank has started to run out of foreign currencies. To make matters worse, the World Bank warned that the Lebanese economic crisis is nowhere near its end, in fact, it is one of the worst financial collapses in the world in nearly 200 years.
Crisis Victims
A bitter medical situation portends a humanitarian catastrophe starting to loom in the air, as death at hospitals doors has become reality. Mila, a 4-year-old girl with blood cancer, died in her mother’s arms because no hospital could take her in due to limited capabilities and the loss of necessary supplies. Mila's mother, Mrs. Maria Moussa, tells the story of the night of her child’s death to a news website, explaining that her daughter was initially treated at St. George's University Hospital (Al Room) to then take treatments in another hospital, following the Beirut port explosion, damaging Al Room Hospital.
The mother explains that Mila's condition deteriorated that night because her temperature rose due to the chemotherapy she underwent, as her immunity was weak. The mother says: "we took her that night to the hospital where she is being treated (Mar Youssef, Dora), where we found out she was suffering from a severe infection. They asked for blood for her and tried to save her, but the hospital was not equipped with an intensive care room for children, so her condition worsened."
“We started looking for another hospital, but all we got were rejections. arguments were many: no empty beds, we stopped receiving patients, tonight is not a good time...” They asked every university hospital, but they all rejected them. Hospitals said they didn’t receive patients treated at the expense of the state's social security, even when Mila's family explicitly expressed their willingness to pay whichever amount needed to get the girl hospitalized.
Immediately, the family decided to search in other, less advanced hospitals, but it was the same scenario all over again. Ms. Maria then tried to get her daughter a bed through mediation. She succeeded in finding a bed in a hospital in Beirut, but they refused to take her in at night and asked the mother to wait until morning. Unfortunately, Mila's weak body couldn’t make it, and she passed away despite all the family’s efforts.
Mila’s story is one of many tragic stories of Lebanese families at hospital doors, does anyone hear their suffering?
International and Local Relief Efforts
Because of the catastrophic health crisis the Lebanese citizens and foreign residents suffer from, the country is witnessing medical initiatives that may contribute, even if just a little, in the development of medical services. For example, the Lebanese doctor residing in Africa and the representative of the African Union for Health Care Dr. Muhammad Al-Sahili announced an initiative put forward by the Lebanese expatriates that may aim to invest in the hospital sector by raising the value of hospital shares and offering them for sale by an additional 20%, which means raising the value of the shares to 120% of the capital funded by external money. Thus, Lebanese people who live abroad are helping their homeland, Lebanon, in improving the faltering hospital sector.
On the other hand, Beirut Governmental University Hospital in Karantina inaugurated a new endoscopy unit, which was equipped with modern equipment and endoscopes for lungs, trachea, stomach and intestines, with the support of "Al Taawon - Lebanon". Karantina Hospital was severely and massively damaged during the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, and is considered “a vital shelter for the poor and marginalized groups in Lebanon,” according to Fouad Bawarshi, head of the administrative body of the “Al Taawon” Foundation.
Minister of Public Health Dr. Hamad Hassan held a meeting with the Tunisian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mr. Boraoui Al Imam, addressing “current health challenges in times of pandemic," during which they discussed cooperation in scientific researches and experience exchange, especially in the medicines sector along many projects to come. Hassan also met with a delegation from the Pharma Group to discuss a donation to the Ministry of Health to apply the drug health card. All those initiatives fall under the plan the ministry developed to automize the import of medicine and tracking it until disbursing it through an electronic health card Lebanese citizens would have. This card would monitor medicine and put an end to smuggling and monopoly.
Communication and Public Relations Department
Resources:
Lebanon 24 website:
Al Joumhouria website:
MTV Lebanon website:
Nida Al Watan website:
Al-Ain News website:
Annahar website: