Lebanon’s doctors ,hospitals are on strike

BEIRUT: Dozens of physicians, nurses, and medical professionals demonstrated outside the Central Bank of Beirut on Thursday after calling a two-day nationwide strike to protest the country’s rapidly deteriorating economic situation.

The walkout was called by two medical professional organisations, the Syndicates of Doctors in Beirut and the North and the Syndicate of Private Hospital Owners, who claim they can no longer accept central bank policies that allow banks to apply arbitrary capital limits and other limitations.

Only emergency cases and dialysis patients will be admitted to hospitals during the strike, which concludes on Friday, according to the unions.

Lebanon’s medical sector, which was among the strongest in the Middle East until a few years ago, is on the verge of collapsing, barely surviving the country’s extraordinary economic and financial disaster.

The local currency has lost more than 90% of its value against the dollar since the crisis began in October 2019, wiping away income and savings.

Thousands of physicians and nurses have left the country, and a substantial number of pharmacies have closed, resulting in serious shortages of drugs and medical equipment.

Several hospitals have issued warnings that they would have to close due to a lack of funds to cover their bills and pay their staff’s wages.

“Hospitals will close because there is no way they can continue. We have to pay cash when we have no access to cash,” said Suleiman Haroun, the leader of the private hospitals’ union, who attended the demonstration in Beirut with a few hundred colleagues.

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