Abou Faour Scraps al-Hayat Hospital Contract, Refers Dr. to Disciplinary Board

Health Minister Wael About Faour canceled the contracts between the Ministry of Health and al-Hayat Hospital on Friday, referring a doctor to the disciplinary board and warning two pharmacists ad part of the anti-corruption campaign that he started more than two months ago.

In a statement, the ministry announced that Abou Faour “scrapped the contract between the ministry and al-Hayat Hospital, and a probe will be launched into the hospital’s conduct with patients.”

Abou Faour also issued a decree in which he froze the mechanism of separating doctors' fees from hospitals' dues.

He stressed the importance of “the right of the citizens to obtain medicines in lower prices, which decreases their financial burdens and at the same time puts an end to some doctors and drug companies' commissions at the expense of the Lebanese people.”

In another decree, the minister compelled all hospitals that have contracts with the Ministry of Health to return the medications of fatal and chronic diseases provided by the ministry that were not used for different reasons "so that the ministry can hand them to patients who deserve them."

The minister also warned three pharmacists -- one in Baalbek, one in Ablah and one in Doueir -- for “violating the law of their profession and the decrees of the health ministry.”

He warned the pharmacists that repeating such violations will expose them to legal prosecution that may lead to shutting down their pharmacies.

The Minister of Health also asked “the Lebanese Order of Physicians to refer a doctor to the disciplinary board after he committed violations.”

The measures come amid an unprecedented food safety campaign launched by Abou Faour around a month ago in the food industry, which has so far involved restaurants, factories, farms, slaughterhouses and even the wheat silos at Beirut's port and the sugar depots at Tripoli's port.

M.Y.

Y.R.