Salam government launches 'public hospital equipment plan' in Lebanon

The government announced Friday the launch of a plan to equip public hospitals in Lebanon, funded by the World Bank (WB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), titled "public hospital equipment plan: a strategy for balanced reform and development of the health system."

The announcement took place at the Grand Serail, led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and attended by Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine and several of his colleagues.

This plan applies to 36 public hospitals across Lebanese territory, "notably in the South," said Salam. "Ten of these hospitals are located in areas that were on the front lines during the latest conflict, and some even suffered extensive damage from Israeli attacks, becoming symbols of the resilience of our southern population," the prime minister said.

According to him, this project "is not just an equipment plan. It is the most important and most balanced investment in Lebanese public hospitals in many years, both in terms of funding and the clarity of its long-term reform objectives," he said.

"As a government, we will not allow any patient to wait for hours in front of a hospital, nor anyone to be denied admission for financial reasons," he promised.

Major imperative of reform

The prime minister nonetheless said he was "aware of the major challenge ahead: what comes after funding and after the project ends."

"Sustainability isn't an option, it's a requirement. The public health sector cannot continue to rely solely on international aid," he noted.

He explained that the "government will work on developing a sustainable operational and financial strategy for public hospitals."

Nassereddine detailed the "major imperative of reform" of the public hospital sector in Lebanon, recalling that it has suffered "successive crises" over the past years, including the economic and financial crisis of 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020.

In this respect, he listed "the loss of more than 40 percent of physicians and more than 20 percent of nursing staff," as well as "the surge in hospital costs, with citizens directly paying more than 85 percent of the bill."

"So we decided to invest wisely in these hospitals, an investment that ensures state-of-the-art equipment and substantially modernizes services, which will have a positive impact on citizens' health and care quality," he said, welcoming the fact that they "were able to unlock World Bank and Islamic Development Bank loans and revive the development process in coordination with our partner, the Council for Development and Reconstruction."

The acquisition of the equipment should be completed sometime in 2026, Nassereddine said, who also listed several measures taken by his ministry, including "settling bills and outstanding amounts within three to six months from the date of the medical intervention," the Ministry "tripling treatment protocols for cancers and incurable diseases and integrating more than 56 percent new medicines." The minister concluded by expressing hope of achieving "universal health coverage."

The project "will fund the acquisition of medical equipment worth about $25 million and the necessary civil engineering and electromechanical works for their installation, amounting to about $5 million," said Mohammad Ali Qabbani, president of the CDR.

In a recorded message, IDB regional director Noureddine Mabrouk explained that the "Bank is currently implementing four major projects, particularly the health resilience project, which includes a vast network of 104 primary health care centers and 28 public hospitals, to provide basic health services to over 715,000 beneficiaries across Lebanon."