A nurse at the dialysis center at Rizk Hospital in Beirut. (Credit: Lyana Alameddine)
BEIRUT – Lebanese firms importing medical equipment for dialysis and treating heart disease on Thursday called on the Health Ministry to cut subsidies on these products, saying Banque du Liban’s failure to facilitate subsidized credit lines was obstructing imports of the key equipment.
Here’s what we know:
• In a statement, the importers called on “the Ministry of Health to lift subsidies on medical equipment for dialysis and heart disease and transfer them directly, if possible, to the patient or hospitals.”
• The head of the Medical Equipment and Devices Importers Syndicate, Salma Assi, told L’Orient Today that importers do not have access to the “so-called subsidies” and that credit lines for their purchase are “basically frozen” amid the central bank’s inability to pay out the subsidies.
• In their statement, the Importers regretted “the deterioration of their financial situation in view of the discrepancy between the price of the equipment fixed within the framework of the subsidies and their true cost,” with the Lebanese pound having lost more than 95 percent of its value against the dollar in the last three years.
• The Medical Equipment and Devices Importers Syndicate said in its statement that the companies would commit to respecting the subsidized prices for the equipment, set beforehand, until the end of June, which is when the stock of subsidized products runs out. The companies then called on the central bank to pay the amounts owed to them.