Unpaid and overlooked: Lebanon medical body struggles see no end

The medical body seems unable to cope with the brain drain caused by the immigration crisis that has afflicted it since the beginning of the financial crisis. 

From his clinic in Bekaa, Dr. Jalal Abdo speaks out on behalf of many doctors in Lebanon who have yet to receive their dues and fees from the Ministry of Health for the years 2021 and 2022.

The Ministry of Health's failure to pay the doctors' fees, and its daily depreciation, along with the rise of the dollar exchange rate, contributes to the deterioration of the doctors' situation.

Upon consulting the Beirut Doctors Syndicate, it is found that the fees owed to doctors by the Ministry of Health for the year 2021 alone amount to about 60 billion LBP, and the failure to pay them is due to an unjustified and incomprehensible delay by some employees in the Ministry of Health, according to them.

The syndicate hired a specialized private company to manage medical and hospital fees to ensure the management of these fees because the ministry lacked enough employees to handle the task.

The company met with officials and employees at the ministry and with Caretaker Minister of Health Firas al-Abiad, who gave the go-ahead to carry out the mission after expressing his full cooperation. 

The company followed the rules and contacted the relevant employees at the ministry to obtain a list of documents, settlement reports from the Ministry of Health, and the fees of each doctor, to send the tables to the Ministry of Finance for payment of the fees.

The company did not, however, receive a response to complete its mission, which led the doctors' syndicate to wonder about this peculiar performance.

According to syndicate sources, the delay in completing the processes for paying the fees may be related to the embezzlement case involving funds belonging to doctors and hospitals that was revealed last summer and resulted in the arrest of two employees—one in the finance department and the other in the office that manages doctors' fees.