A sit-in was staged on Tuesday outside Al-Youssef hospital in Halba, upon the request of civil society activists and with the participation of mayors, heads of municipalities and the hospital’s staff.
The demonstrators protested against the decision of Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, which consists in terminating the ministry’s contract with the said hospital, noting that it was the only health facility in the area treating cancer.
Minister Abou Faour filed on Thursday (December 3) a case against the administration of the Al-Youssef Hospital in Akkar on charges of refusing access to a patient who later died.
The minister announced that his ministry had terminated the contract with the hospital’s administration; however will keep on funding the dialysis department.
Abou Faour ordered an investigation into the death of Ahmad Khodr Abdel Majeed last month after the Al-Youssef Hospital reportedly refused to admit him.
Abdel Majeed, who had sustained dangerous injuries from a traffic accident, waited around half an hour outside the said hospital before being refused admission into the emergency room.
He was then sent to the Rahhal hospital in Akkar also where he was pronounced dead.