Blog
Lama Hajj

Medical Equipment Importer Warns: Lebanon Running Out Of Surgical Supplies

Amid the worsening dollar crisis, the spokesperson of medical equipment importers Salma Assi revealed that the crisis has become unbearable for hospitals. Due to their inability to transfer USD abroad, medical equipment importers are not being able to pay their suppliers for necessary shipments.

Assi revealed that hospitals and importers had been sounding the alarm for four months now, and that all their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. “The banks and the Central Bank refuse to take responsibility,” Assi said, adding that hospitals are running low on crucial pieces of medical equipment such as surgical sutures, blood bags, and certain tools needed for life-saving surgeries such as open heart operations and the like.

Meanwhile private hospitals are owed $1.3 billion in unpaid bills by the state and labs are dangerously short on supplies. On the other hand, the patients can’t withdraw cash to pay healthcare bills, and several hospitals have been forced to stop treating cancer patients due to the shortages in supplies and equipment.

This crisis shows no signs of letting up, with no official plans of action being enforced to mitigate the crisis.