General Aoun delivered a speech in which he said: “We have given military medical care from the beginning great attention, even ahead of arming and training, and we have developed a strategic plan to develop it, in a way that preserves the dignity of our soldiers and our families and provides them with all the necessary health services.”
He said, “We faced at the beginning a reduction in the army’s budget, which we overcame with our ability to adapt and applied measures to reduce expenditures, except for those related to medicine, as it is not permissible to harm the health of our soldiers and their families, and we also began the process of searching for alternative solutions to maintain the level of medical services, while the medical staff made efforts mighty in this field, thanks to their will and confidence in the military institution.”
He added, “When we ask regarding our success as a military institution in preserving medical care, the answer is clear and explicit. First, the will of the military medical personnel, their belief in the nobility of their mission, and their adherence to it. Second, the steps we have taken previously, including reducing the medical bill. Third, which is the most important, Our countrymen trust us as an institution that maintains security and guarantor of stability in light of the dissolution and disintegration of most state institutions.
And the army commander believed that “this confidence is reflected daily in the assistance they provide us, whether they are residents, expatriates, or from friendly countries, and given the importance of medical care to us, we transferred most of this aid to it and we are still, and the result is that we are the only institution today that provides medical services to its members.” .
He pointed out that “all this is thanks to this aid that is still reaching us, and I repeat for their confidence in us. They have all our thanks and gratitude, knowing that their money reaches its beneficiaries, far from incitement, rumors and accusations that we will not stop at, and will not affect the morale of the institution or the morale of its members.”
He continued, “Our homeland today, more than ever, needs the will, determination, and confidence of its people. It needs all efforts to be concerted and unified away from political, partisan, and sectarian divisions, because what unites the Lebanese is much more than what divides them.”
He concluded by saying, “Their concern today is beyond narrow political calculations and the living situation. Their concern is their health, which has become threatened. Their concern is providing medicine for their incurable diseases. Their concern is a hospital that receives them and wards them off the specter of death, with a bill that does not humiliate them. Our people, who live in daily suffering, deserve our attention and concern for their least rights.” It is health, then health, then health.”
