Diab chairs meeting of parliamentary health committee

Prime Minister Hassan Diab chaired on Thursday at the Grand Serail, the meeting of the Parliamentary Health Committee, which was attended by Minister of Health Hamad Hassan, Committee Head MP Assem Araji, and MPs: Mario Aoun, Pierre Bou Assi, Inaya Ezzedine, Amine Sherri, Alexander Matossian, Bilal Abdallah, Dima Jamali, Ali Al-Mokdad, Mohammad Al-Qaraawi and Secretary of the Committee Hussein Awwad, in the presence of PM’s Advisor, Petra Khoury.

After the meeting, MP Assem Araji made the following statement: After several meetings held by the Parliamentary Committee with Minister Hamad Hassan and medical professions unions, we made recommendations that are in line with the current situation, the coronavirus pandemic and the unreasonable rise in the dollar exchange rate. We are faced with a dilemma; thus we have visited H.E. to brief him on the recommendations, which include:

- Establishing a health emergency plan engaging all health sectors;

- Providing an exceptional financial support to the medical staff to carry out their tasks and continue to stand steadfast;

- Paying financial dues to hospitals. One hundred billion pounds have been disbursed to hospitals by the Minister of Finance, while other pending dues worth 450 billion pounds have been approved by the Parliament;

- Cooperating with the World Bank to secure soft loans for the health sector;

- Facilitating the work of guarantor institutions to purchase medical supplies.

We have also raised with H.E. the issue of the medication bill. National factories are playing a major role, but they cover only ten percent of the market’s need; it is necessary to support them to increase manufacturing rates. The health situation is difficult and requires cooperation with all parties.

MP Inaya Ezzedine talked about the PCR tests and errors that occurred in some of the results. She said: "The Health Committee got in touch with the Syndicate of Private and Public Laboratories, and we found out  that the error could occur in the three stages of the examination procedure:

1- Sample-taking;

2- Sample-testing;

3- Result delivery.

After meetings with the Minister of Health, a plan was developed to avoid errors by unifying standards in all laboratories and centers, inspecting laboratories, and controlling counterfeiting of results.