2024-01-10 14:40:36
The strike of Rafic Hariri Governmental University Hospital employees, in itself, is not the most prominent event in the hospital case. The strike is not new, but has become a recurring event, the details of its reasons vary, but its essence is a warning once morest the hospital’s complete collapse. Although the open strike that began yesterday, Tuesday, carried in its general nature the demand to save the hospital and ensure the continuity of its services on the one hand, and to accelerate the payment of employees’ salaries on the other hand, the details that were revealed to Al-Modon contain the hidden secrets of what is happening in the corridors. It gives indications regarding the reasons for the increase in the hospital’s deficit, and at the same time raises questions regarding the people who run the helm there.
Delayed payment of salaries
Hariri Hospital employees do not deny their need to accelerate the payment of their salaries for last December. But there is something more important, because “paying salaries without saving the hospital will not benefit citizens and hospital employees alike,” according to what sources among the employees confirm. However, the salary process was marred by flaws that led employees to “doubt that there was anything planned for the employees and the hospital.”
The salaries were delayed, “even though we were promised by the hospital administration to pay before the Christmas holiday, specifically on December 23rd. The holiday passed and we did not receive payment. The promise was renewed before the end of 2023. The year passed and we did not receive payment. Justifications abounded, sometimes that the money was ready, but the Minister of Finance A patient who was unable to sign the transfer, and sometimes justifications related to administrative routine, etc. The maneuvers continued until last Thursday, when a delegation of hospital employees went to the director of the office of the Minister of Health, who contacted the hospital administration to find out the reasons for the delay, and then we received an answer saying that there was no “There is any delay, so we declared a strike to say that the hospital and employees are slowly dying.”
Following the announcement of the strike, the salary file accelerated, especially following the employees’ meeting with the Chairman of the Parliamentary Health Committee, Representative Bilal Abdullah, who communicated with the Director General of Finance, George Maarawi, and it also became clear that the file had reached the Bank of Lebanon, and the salaries were supposed to be transferred to the banks tomorrow, Thursday.
The positive picture shown by the sources is consistent with what the general director of the hospital, Jihad Saadeh, tells Al-Modon, who confirms that “the employees will receive their salaries tomorrow.” As for the reason for delaying the transfer until the beginning of the year 2024, Saadeh attributes it to “holidays and the routine cycle of work in state administrations.”
Laboratory and radiology paralysis
Sources reveal that employees were quick to assure management that their priority goes beyond salaries, despite their importance. The priority is to secure financial resources to purchase the equipment required to operate the laboratory and radiology department. However, “money was paid to some companies and did not provide the required materials.”
Giving employees priority to the hospital stems from the fact that hospital services have become paralyzed. At the laboratory level, “it is no longer possible to perform the CBC blood test, the blood flow test, or the TPP test, along with examining blood electrolytes and plasma. This means that the laboratory has almost stopped working.” To resolve the crisis, “the hospital paid $9,000 to one of the companies contracting with it to secure the necessary materials for the laboratory, and sent it a list of the required materials. The company sent materials worth only $1,000, and did not adhere to the required list. What was sent would last the hospital for regarding 5 days maximum.”
At the same time, the radiology department is suffering like the laboratory. For example, “performing some MRI images is impossible. Imaging the head, abdomen, pelvis, hands, and feet is not possible, due to the loss of a piece of the imaging machine, which costs regarding 15 thousand dollars.” This situation prompts hospital employees, their family members, and other patients to perform the required images in other hospitals, noting that the cost of the image outside the Hariri Hospital “is between 70 and 80 dollars, and inside the hospital is regarding 4 million liras.”
Sources are surprised, “Where does the money that comes to the hospital go?” To add to the strangeness, “regarding a month and a half ago, the hospital received an amount of $580,000. The administration spent regarding $400,000 to companies that provide medical equipment and supplies. About 20 days following disbursing the money, work in the laboratory stopped, and the MRI machine was not repaired and the shortage continued.” Medicines and medical materials, which means that the disbursement of money has question marks, and we do not know how it comes, on what basis its value is determined, and how it is spent.”
Collusion from within the administration
Saadeh refers the hospital crisis to the country’s general crisis, which affects all government departments and institutions. He explains that the hospital “is forced to receive patients who do not have money, and some of them remain in the hospital for several days without anyone from their family asking regarding them or paying the bill for them, and the hospital is forced to close their file and remove them and bear the loss.” To improve this reality, Saadeh suggests “changing the tariff to become in dollars or finding another appropriate formula.”
What Saadeh says is “a small part of the crisis.” The sources believe that “if the funds received by the hospital were properly managed, the situation would be better than it is now.” According to the sources, the problem is growing because “there are those who deliberately complicate the situation, from within the hospital.” The money that comes “is quickly distributed to the companies contracting with the hospital. This distribution is preceded by blackmail carried out by the companies, such as by deciding not to provide services, for example, in order to put pressure on the administration to obtain the money. The issue is repeated every time a few days before the money reaches the hospital. This indicates There are those from within the hospital administration colluding with the companies, telling them that there are funds allocated and close to being transferred, so the companies pressure to benefit from the funds, noting that these same companies contract with private hospitals and some other government hospitals, and continue to deliver materials despite the delay in paying their dues. For regarding 3 months, it only practices blackmail with the Hariri Hospital. Is there someone intentionally destroying the hospital?
Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital is transformed, due to neglect, into something resembling a large clinic. Its services decline and the opportunities for patients to benefit from them decrease. However, the companies contracting with the hospital benefit from hundreds of thousands of dollars, paying the price of destroying and demolishing the hospital financially and morally, instead of enhancing its ability to provide the required health services.
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