The Finance and Budget Committee held a session headed by Representative Ibrahim Kanaan and in the presence of the Minister of Health, Rakan Nasser Al-Din, and MPs: Ali Fayyad, Alain Aoun, Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zuaiter, Salim Aoun, Jihad Al-Samad, Ihab Matar, Bilal Abdullah, Haider Nasser, Fadi Alama, Cesar Abi Khalil, Amin Sheri, Jamil Al-Sayyid, Melhem Khalaf, Halima Kaqour, Najat Aoun Saliba, Qasim Hashem, Michel Moussa, Ayoub Hamid, Taha Naji, Adnan Traboulsi, Muhammad Khawaja, Abdul Rahman Al-Bizri, Farid Al-Bustani, Yassin Yassin, Razi Al-Hajj.
Director General of Finance, George Maarawi, also attended.
After the session, Kanaan said, “Today I approved the budget of the Ministry of Health with the following amendments:
A request was made to transfer 8,000 billion out of the 25,000 billion for the hospitalization item. This item, as explained by the Minister of Health, which received parliamentary consensus regarding its role and performance, does not cover, with the required addition, a third of the required need, but it is better than the situation today. The Finance Committee has taken a positive decision in principle to transfer from the reserve, provided that the Minister of Health submits an official letter containing the reasons for a decision on it at the last session of the Finance Committee within two weeks.”
Representative Ibrahim Kanaan.
He added, “With regard to the issue of primary care centers, the Chairman of the Health Committee and a number of representatives submitted a request to transfer one thousand billion to strengthen these centers, which will practically reduce the burden on the patient and the state. The cost of hospitalization is large, and prevention, if adopted seriously, contributes to reducing it before the patient arrives at the hospital, where he is supposed to be followed up in an acceptable manner. There are 340 prevention centers in all Lebanese territories, and this is the first time that a budget has been allocated to these centers to carry out their tasks. The committee also required that the approved mechanism be seriously and strictly scrutinized in the disbursement process.” Amounts and insurance services.
He said, “Government hospitals that carried out great work, whether during Corona or the port explosion, were noted to have enhanced state contributions to them and enhanced their capabilities. The Minister of Health spoke about cooperation programs and donations from the Islamic Bank and the World Bank related to advanced medical equipment, and this equipment is distributed to government hospitals. There was a serious and constructive discussion on this level in the committee, and there is a great desire to strengthen the role of these hospitals to provide better service, but the condition for activating serious oversight is not questioning their administrations, but rather in the context of the state’s duties to adopt sound governance.” And transparency in the health sector.”
Kanaan confirmed the request to “strengthen financial allocations for medicines for chronic diseases and cancer, and the amounts will be determined in the last session of the Finance Committee, after a written letter that reaches it from the Minister of Health regarding the needs.” He said, “We asked the Minister of Health for a table regarding the ceilings for hospitals and we approved additional requests to strengthen the capabilities of the health sector so that the patient obtains his rights.”
He concluded by saying, “The representatives expressed great appreciation for the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health, Rakan Nasser Al-Din, who strengthened hospital services in health centers and government hospitals without discrimination, in addition to implementing the protocols approved with private hospitals.”
