Lebanon’s Minister of Public Health presents new additions to drug tracking program and announces opening of cancer treatment centers

The Minister of Public Health in the caretaker government, Firas Al-Abyadh, presented the new additions to the MediTrack drug tracking program, so that it now includes more drugs for incurable diseases, in addition to continuing to secure and track cancer drugs, which confirms to the Ministry that money and medicines go to patients only in order to control the movement of medicines. Which was losing a very large percentage after it was distributed in the market.

The White Minister announced the opening soon of five centers that provide chemotherapy for cancer patients in government hospitals in a number of Lebanese regions, since the financial differences required by these hospitals are much lower than those required by private hospitals.

This came in a press conference held by Minister Dr. Al-Abyad at the Ministry of Public Health, in which he dealt with issues related to securing and financing medicine, according to the following:

1- “Intractable medicines and moving forward with the MediTrack tracking program: The White Minister pointed to the continuation of intensive efforts to secure medicine for patients, announcing a new expansion of the MediTrack tracking program, to which the Ministry included a number of incurable diseases about a month and a half ago: multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, Thalassemia, and immunotherapy drugs for organ transplant patients. The program also includes immunosuppressive drugs that are given to patients of the digestive system, rheumatism, and skin diseases.

The Minister of Public Health reminded of the mechanism adopted in the MediTrack tracking system to help patients obtain their medicines, starting with the patient obtaining the unified health number, and then the attending physician’s registration of the patient’s file on the AMAN system. The white minister said that the number of pharmacies contracting with the ministry to implement the MediTrack tracking system has increased from about thirty to more than eighty. In the coming days, training courses will be organized for about a hundred pharmacies to allow the patient to obtain his medication included in the tracking system from a pharmacy close to his place of residence.

2- Support and medicines for cancerous diseases: Minister Al-Abyad affirmed the ministry’s adherence to supporting medicine, reassuring that the funding is secured for the next three months, recalling that the Council of Ministers approved in its last session this funding at a value of thirty-five million dollars per month. The Minister of Public Health said: “This monthly amount allocated for medicine and supplies remains insufficient, and we insist on repeating the demand for more to cover the existing needs. In the meantime, we are working through automated systems to ensure that the existing funds are used for patients without smuggling or theft.”

Al-Abyadh explained that “the delay that sometimes occurs in the delivery of medicine is due to two reasons, either the companies are late in presenting their invoices, or the Bank of Lebanon is late in transferring funds, and the ministry that understands the suffering of patients is in a constant effort to solve these problems so that this delay does not exceed ten days, hoping to reach a solution.” The stage in which medicines are secured at the right time.

3- New cancer treatment centers: The Minister of Public Health announced that the ministry is expanding the number of cancer centers in government hospitals to provide chemotherapy for patients with the aim of helping the most vulnerable class, because the differences required by these centers are much less than the differences required in the private sector. And he announced five centers that will soon be opened in each of Keserwan, Baalbek, Chouf, Baabda and Sidon, in addition to the existing ten centers.

4- Complete mechanization of the submission of medication documents starting next month: Due to the strike of public sector employees and the ministry’s employees working one day a week, Dr. Trouble coming to the ministry.

The Minister of Public Health, Firas Al-Abyadh, concluded by stressing that “the situation is very difficult and stressful due to the lack of funding, which has declined a lot. However, the automated systems applied by the Ministry allowed, on the other hand, to provide better patient service, reduce theft and waste that occurred in the past, and work to gradually solve problems.” In addition, these systems revealed the occurrence of large quantities of theft and waste that require intervention and investigation by the Financial Public Prosecution to ascertain the destination of the billions that were spent in the wrong place.

Noting that attached to the news is information that the Ministry of Health has re-circulated to guide patients (cancer, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, thalassemia, transplantation) to ways to obtain the unified health number and to register on the safety platform and the documents required for that. As well as special instructions for patients who use Humira, which the Ministry received a gift from, as the Ministry will allow these patients to obtain it without registering on a security platform for a period of two months only, with the aim of accelerating the insurance of the drug, provided that during this interval the file is completed by the doctor The processor is safe.

The Ministry also reminds the hotline 1214 to report any problem related to cancerous and incurable diseases, during working hours from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon.