Lebanon’s economic crisis is overwhelming the healthcare sector, which is on the verge of collapse. The president of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, Suleiman Haroun, warned of chaos in Lebanon’s hospitals as patients are being turned away over financial or payment issues.
“There are hospitals that do not accept patients at the expense of insurance companies or force them to pay the differences,” he said, speaking to Al-Jadeed on Monday.
“It is forbidden for any hospital not to receive emergency cases, even if the patient does not have money,” he declared. However, this is an issue seen more than once in Lebanon and is sometimes alleged to be the reason behind the deaths of patients at hospital doors.
Haroun told Al-Jadeed that, after requesting assistance for Lebanon’s hospital sector from international bodies and the World Health Organization (WHO), the answer was that a government should be formed first.
Over the weekend, health experts warned that, with the way the situation is now, Lebanon’s health care system will not be able to handle another wave of COVID-19 infections.
