The story of a woman in Lebanon who makes hearts bleed.. So she faces the most difficult health massacre!

The joy of Nancy Al-Duwaidi, who gave birth to twins twenty days ago, was not complete, in addition to the premature birth (in the seventh month) and the need for health care of her two children which forced them to stay in hospital in Lebanon, was forced to take the trouble to look for packs of milk for them after losing them from pharmacies.

Nancy resorted to social networks, like many mothers, in an attempt to find what they needed, both from infant formula and from medicines, after most of them had been cut off from pharmacies, especially those that are still partially subsidized. of one of these, before we raised the price yesterday, Thursday, was £365,000 which means my husband has to insure around £1.5m a week A pack whilst we run out of stock.

A few days ago the crisis of medicines and baby food worsened in Lebanon, following the rise in the dollar exchange rate, which exceeded the threshold of 46 thousand pounds, which prompted importing companies to stop delivering them to pharmacies , and those who delivered them in small quantities that are not enough for the needs of the market, pending the position of Minister of Health in a government. Caretaker Firas Al-Abyadh has called for a new price index, as the captains of the pharmacists, drug importers, companies and warehouse workers have asked in a joint statement for the need for “the Ministry of Health to publish a weekly price index, in accordance with ministerial decisions on the matter”.

The two commanders felt that “failure to take account of this very important issue will lead to the failure to ensure continuity of supply of the market with medicine, and inevitably to the failure of pharmaceutical institutions in general, and their inability to follow up to meet the needs of Lebanese patients”, underlining that “the issue of updating drug price tables is not only linked to the process”. , and the repetition of this process will lead to dire consequences, including the inevitable bankruptcy of pharmaceutical institutions and their termination.

The cry of the captains was heard by the Minister of Health, who raised the dollar exchange rate index issued by the Ministry of Health from £41,000 to £45,000, to write citizens to bear greater burdens. of them have not been able to guarantee the price of milk or medicines. How about the new price increase?

Exchange prices

Two days ago, Nancy went to the hospital to check on her two children, and the doctor informed her that she could take her baby, who no longer needs health care, as long as her baby stays for another few days. but he has to pay £50 million, which is (the ministry’s difference), he says with a gasp: ‘I saw The accountant says I have no money, and when I secure the sum, I’ll come and get it, and the same is the case as for his brother, that I don’t know how much his hospital bill will be, or let them stay in the hospital until they are grown up and so they can walk and go home.

Nancy wonders: ‘Where do I get the millions to pay, and my husband is a butcher whose daily wages are £300,000, just enough to pay for the packs of milk they need, knowing we also have three children and need to secure the their tuition, food and clothing, plus a hundred-dollar check for the house rent and so much more.” widgets”.

The daughter of Tripoli (residents of Barja in the Governorate of Mount Lebanon, her husband’s hometown), expresses her dissatisfaction with the increase in the prices of infant formula and medicines, saying: “What kind of authority is this that fails to find solutions to a crisis that has been going on for three years, and is getting deeper every day, and how will we do it? Resilience and collapse have reached limits that the citizen could no longer bear, and what’s more, the Minister of Health has simply raised the Threshold price index of medicines, instead of officials holding back the imaginary increase in the dollar exchange rate, rather the minister preached to us that a weekly price will be set, which means that the worst awaits us.

Healthy “massacre”.

Journalist Cladis Saab, on the other hand, goes from one pharmacy to another looking for medicines for her, her mother and her brother, and says: “What is happening is a massacre against patients. The issue is not limited to painkillers , but it also affects medicines for chronic diseases such as blood pressure, heart and diabetes, as their local alternative is not available either.” After the partial subsidy was lifted, as it relies on imported raw materials for its production, as if the imaginary prices it has achieved are not enough to lose us again from the market.

Cladis is waiting for one of her acquaintances to travel to Turkey to advise him on buying the medicines she and her family need, and although there are companies that have taken advantage of the crisis to reap profits, they take it upon themselves to secure alternatives for citizens, on the other hand, as she herself says, “I’m afraid of knocking on their doors, because I don’t know where they get the medicine from and how effective it is, especially since these are companies not authorized by the Ministry of Health, and most of they import medicines from Iran and Syria.

A while ago, Cladis was forced, as she says, to buy homemade medicine made with sugar, but it “caused side effects like nausea. Its £500,000 price tag, or about $11, went to waste. After after an exhausting search, I found a pharmacist who could import it from France for $55.” It is remarkable, as she says, that “most of the medicines had their price previously indicated on the packaging removed, which means that they were available in pharmacies and were withheld by patients waiting for the Ministry of Health to increase the price index prices, and some of them are close to expiration dates, and this is another proof of the reluctance of pharmacies to sell them.” To register more profits in the price change.

One of the pharmacists confirmed to Al-Hurra that unsubsidised medicines and infant formula are available, as opposed to partially subsidized ones, and after publishing a new price index, we are waiting for the importing companies to meet our needs, hoping that the problem will not be repeated for the sake of patients’ health in the first place and which pharmacies can bear in light of the difficult situation experienced by all sectors.

Pharmaceutical companies import medicines in foreign currency, as the Ministry of Health, as explained by the head of the Syndicate of Drug Importers, Karim Jabara, “determines their price, the dollar exchange rate and the profits of pharmacists”. adding in an interview with the “Al-Hurra” website that “the problem lies in the instability of the dollar exchange rate on the black market, which is a financial problem that must be addressed for the good of all sectors, not only in the health sector”.