Lebanon's Healthcare on Brink of Collapse, Says Minister

A healthcare worker wheels a patient inside a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon May 31, 2021. Picture taken May 31, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A healthcare worker wheels a patient inside a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon May 31, 2021. Picture taken May 31, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon's Healthcare on Brink of Collapse, Says Minister

A healthcare worker wheels a patient inside a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon May 31, 2021. Picture taken May 31, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A healthcare worker wheels a patient inside a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon May 31, 2021. Picture taken May 31, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Lebanon's healthcare system is crumbling amid an economic crisis that has led to an exodus of thousands of doctors and nurses, forced private hospitals to close some departments and put further strains on the already stretched state sector.

"If this crisis goes on for long without solutions we will of course come 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, driving much of the nation into poverty and pushing healthcare professionals and others to head 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, the ministry's director of medical care.

The ministry covered medical bills for about 50% of the population before the crisis but now about 70% of Lebanese were demanding help, straining the ministry's shrinking budget, he said, adding: "We are racking up massive debts at hospitals."

The ministry's budget in dollar terms was worth $300 million before the crisis and was 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 institution, after unexplained bleeding. But he said she was not admitted until a relative brought cash.

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

Patients often have to pay up front, even if the ministry covers their bills.

Vivianne Mohamed had to rely on a charity to pay for her husband's surgery. "Before we used to go to private hospitals, but now the situation has deteriorated so much," she said, speaking after a long wait for treatment.

About 40% of medical staff, roughly 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 shut departments, such as those for cancer, heart and bone diseases and pediatrics. "They can't find doctors to run them," he said.

The minister said the country needed an International Monetary Fund agreement 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 IMF talks. An election in May threatens further delays.

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



US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
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US, Arab Mediators Make Some Progress in Gaza Peace Talks, No Deal Yet

Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged residential buildings where two Israeli hostages were reportedly held before being rescued during an operation by Israeli security forces in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 12, 2024. (AP)

US and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday.
As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 17 people, Palestinian medics said.
Qatar, the US and Egypt are making a major push to reach a deal to halt fighting in the 15-month conflict and free remaining hostages held by the Hamas group before President Joe Biden leaves office.
President-elect Donald Trump has warned there will be "hell to pay", if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on Jan. 20.
On Thursday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said the absence of a deal so far did not mean the talks were going nowhere and said this was the most serious attempt so far to reach an accord.
"There are extensive negotiations, mediators and negotiators are talking about every word and every detail. There is a breakthrough when it comes to narrowing old existing gaps but there is no deal yet," he told Reuters, without giving further details.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Eden Bar-Tal said Israel was fully committed to reaching an agreement to return its hostages from Gaza but faces obstruction from Hamas.
The two sides have been at an impasse for a year over two key issues. Hamas has said it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
SEVERE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
On Thursday, the death toll from Israel's military strikes included eight Palestinians killed in a house in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, where Israeli forces have operated for more than three months. Nine others, including a father and his three children, died in two separate airstrikes on two houses in central Gaza Strip, health officials said.
There was no Israeli military comment on the two incidents.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory's 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza and says it has facilitated the distribution of hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to warehouses and shelters over the past week.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said troops had recovered the body of Israeli Bedouin hostage Youssef Al-Ziyadna, along with evidence that was still being examined suggesting his son Hamza, taken on the same day, may also be dead.
"We will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.