The head of the parliamentary health committee Assem Araji. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Parliamentary health committee head MP Assem Araji on Tuesday proposed forming a ministerial health committee that would come up with an emergency plan for the struggling health sector in Lebanon in the absence of government meetings, the state-owned National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Araji told L’Orient Today that the committee would be headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and would include the health minister, the finance minister and the public works minister. He also said that such a committee needs the approval of Mikati in order to be formed.
• Lebanon's cabinet has not convened since Oct. 12 due to a dispute among its members over the future of the investigation into the 2020 Beirut port explosion.
• The health committee head also said that the committee would seek to address issues like the high cost of medicines and hospital admissions in light of the depreciation of the Lebanese lira against the dollar. Araji suggested the committee should seek international assistance in relation to these issues.
• Lebanon is dealing with an unprecedented economic crisis that is severely affecting its health sector as nearly 40 percent of Lebanon’s doctors and 30 percent of nurses have departed since October 2019, according to the World Health Organization. The majority of nurses who left did so this year, Lebanon’s Order of Nurses estimates.