Beset by long-running deficits in government payments, now compounded by the country's currency issues, Lebanon's private hospitals announced that they would go on strike unless authorities take immediate steps.
At a news conference convened Friday by the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, the Order of Physicians and a group of importers of medical supplies and equipment, representatives announced that the hospitals would carry out a one-day strike next Friday, Nov. 15, closing to patients with the exception of emergency services, chemotherapy and dialysis.
Last year, Haroun said, the private hospitals had received half of the government payments owed. The hospitals have not received any payments for 2019 to date, he said.
Lebanon has 121 private hospitals with 12,578 beds, and 32 public hospitals with 2,653 beds -- a split of roughly 4-to-1, private to public.
The financial problems are not only relegated to private hospitals.
Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui director Boutros Yared, who is also the dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Lebanese University, told The Daily Star that the Geitaoui hospital was considering salary reductions if the situation does not improve and that most hospitals are in a similar situation.
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