Health care in Lebanon on brink of collapse amid crisis, minister says

BEIRUT, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s health system is collapsing amid an economic crisis that has led to the exodus of thousands of doctors and nurses, forced private hospitals to close some services and put a strain on strains the already overstretched public sector.

“If this crisis lasts for a long time without solutions, we will of course be getting closer to a great collapse,” Health Minister Firass Abiad told Reuters this week.

Lebanon’s economy has been in freefall since 2019 and its currency has lost more than 90% of its value, plunging much of the country into poverty and pushing medical professionals and others to travel abroad for work .

Private hospitals in Lebanon, once a regional hub for medical treatment, accounted for 80% of hospitals and health services before the crisis, but now fewer people could afford them and they were turning to the state, said Joseph Helou, director of the ministry’s medical services. care.

The ministry covered medical bills for around 50% of the population before the crisis, but now around 70% of Lebanese were seeking help, putting a strain on the ministry’s dwindling budget, he said, adding “We are accumulating massive debts in hospitals”.

The ministry’s dollar budget was worth $300 million before the crisis and is now worth the equivalent of $20 million, Helou said, after the currency crash.

Mohammed Qassem, 37, rushed his wife – five months pregnant with their fifth child – to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital, a public facility, after an unexplained haemorrhage. But he said she wasn’t admitted until a relative brought in the money.

“If I don’t have money, what should I do? I let my wife die? he said, speaking outside the hospital this week.

Patients often have to pay upfront, even though the ministry covers their bills.

Vivianne Mohamed had to rely on a charity to pay for her husband’s operation. “We used to go to private hospitals before, but now the situation has deteriorated so much,” she said after a long wait for treatment.

About 40% of medical staff, around 2,000 nurses and 1,000 doctors, had already left Lebanon during the crisis, Helou said, with most heading to Europe and the Gulf.

Many were specialists, forcing some private hospitals to close departments, such as cancer, heart and bone disease and pediatrics. “They can’t find doctors to direct them,” he said.

The minister said the country needed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and reforms to unlock donor support.

But the cabinet, appointed in September, has not met for three months amid a political dispute, delaying preparations for talks with the IMF. An election in May threatens further delays.

“There is no doubt that Lebanon is a sick country now, but the main question is whether it is a terminal disease or a disease that can be cured,” the minister said. . “To recover, as we tell patients, there is a treatment plan that they must adhere to.”

Reporting by Timour Azhari, Laila Bassam and Maya Saad; Editing by Edmund Blair

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.