Lebanon’s hospitals face ‘eye of storm’ as economy tanks

IT IS the most perfect of imperfect storms: decades of political turmoil in a divided land; an economic catastrophe that has seen the lira lose four fifths of its value this year; and the sudden onset of a global pandemic. Lebanon’s hospitals, struggling with a surge in coronavirus infections, are in crisis.

As Suleiman Haroun, president of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, puts it: “How long can this last before hospitals begin to fully close? I don’t know. It’s like a dying person. You know that he’s dying, but you don’t know when it’ll be over with. We are in the same situation. It’s agonising.”

The dollar shortage driving Lebanon’s financial meltdown has triggered a scarcity of medical supplies. Staff are unpaid; electricity – even for hospitals – is increasingly a luxury. The outlook is the most dire since the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990.

As the country battles growing coronavirus infections, Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the main facility dealing with Covid-19 patients, is struggling against daily power cuts lasting up to 18 hours. The ageing generators at the chronically under-funded public hospital cannot cope.

Even the private hospitals are in despair. They are responsible for about 85 per cent of the country’s healthcare system and are warning that they, too, are on the brink of collapse, with the government unable to pay bills estimated at $1.5billion (£1.1billion). When the pandemic struck in February, it was left to the RHUH to lead the response.

More than 70 per cent of Covid-19 patients – there have been round 4,340 cases – have been treated there.

By Western European standards, Lebanon’s number of coronavirus cases is low, with a record 182 new infections recorded on Wednesday. But they are now rising fast, and Dr Firass Abiad, the director of RHUH, is afraid. “Clearly, we are heading into the eye of the storm. A rise in hospitalisations will surely follow,” he tweeted on Thursday.

According to Petra Khoury, adviser to Hassan Diab, the prime minister, Lebanon’s intensive care units will be overwhelmed within two weeks. “We need to be worried,” Dr Abiad said. “This is going to look ugly.”