After the Minister of Health, Dr. Firas Al-Abyadh, issued a decision to increase the tariff for a dialysis session for patients who are being treated at the Ministry’s expense, and set it for the hospital at one million Lebanese pounds for each treatment session, and for the doctor at two hundred thousand. The decision will be implemented at the beginning of April. And he reminded that the medical supplies for treatment are fully subsidized, and the patient should not be burdened with additional burdens, which leads to taking appropriate immediate legal measures.
Patients were surprised at the beginning of this month (April) when hospitals in various Lebanese regions approved a fee of between 300 and 350 dollars per month for the Ministry’s patient, ignoring the Minister’s warnings.
In contact with the Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Joseph Helou, he confirmed, “The minister’s agreement with the hospitals has become valid, but the dialogue is still ongoing with them in terms of the dues that they will receive as advances, whether they are 60 or 70 percent to avoid delay in payment, and this issue awaits the decision of the Minister.” Financial and will be resolved in the next two days, demanding a separation between the hospital fee and the doctor’s fee, which is still stuck with the Doctors Syndicate.
He was also surprised that the hospitals were not committed to the decision of the Ministry of Health, because he had not received any complaints in this regard, asking the patients not to pay, stressing that he would investigate the matter.
The question that kidney patients ask in a complaint to the “Lebanese Debate” remains, “How dare hospitals, in a unilateral decision, charge sums from patients of the Ministry of Health, i.e. patients who do not have the cost of treatment that affects their possibility of survival, repeated treatment that prevents them from working and producing, After the issuance of a binding decision from the minister?
And they add, “How can the Ministry of Health be absent from direct supervision of the work of hospitals and waiting for complaints from here and there, only to be surprised that the hospitals disregarded the minister’s decision? Likewise, I was surprised previously by the issue of not providing us with meals for more than three years and recording them on the Ministry’s bill.” Health is as if it was paid for unjustly.
