It is true that we are not at the level of a state where any official resigns due to a scandal or corruption suspicion. We know that if we demand the resignation of any minister, deputy, or official because of one transgression or another, we might make history, as we would become a people in a country without governance. However, how can any rational person accept that "someone," or "some people," are leading the health sector in the country to disaster, silently, "on the sly," amidst daily tragic situations, ranging from promises, to promises, to promises of more promises, accompanied by more meetings at a leisurely pace?
How can any rational person accept that the custom imposes a daily comprehensive assessment of crises in the country, on the tongues of both high and low authorities, addressing everything from electricity, water, bread, to the Internet... without making the exit from the collapse of the health sector an urgent necessity, at the same level as the essential needs related to reviving the economic wheel in the country?
Consequently, what benefit do we gain from forming governments and efforts to avoid presidential vacuum, without any clear indication of a near breakthrough that would soothe the hearts of "the patients of the country"?
Dr. Ismail Skaria, the head of the "National Health Authority - Health is Right and Dignity," emphasized that "the health sector is the most important sector in any country."
He pointed out in an interview with "Akhbar Al-Yawm" agency that "the reason we do not find real official interest in getting it out of its crisis is that the health sector in Lebanon has long become a mirror reflecting the existing Lebanese system, with its sects, doctrines, and political forces, as well as its institutions, clinics, and charities. Thus, everyone is participating in the collapses of this sector."
Dr. Skaria highlighted, "I have pointed out for years the large manifestations of corruption in the health sector, with statistics, figures, and the excessive consumption, and the multiplied prices of medicines... to the extent of revealing scandals that could topple governments in democratic societies, at a horrifying level, such as the deaths of patients due to contaminated syringes and counterfeit medicines, in addition to corruption and theft in hospital bills. However, the painful part is that everyone remained silent because they are partners in "the blood of this friend."
He added: "There is a lot of corruption everywhere, whether in the Ministry of Health or in other places and institutions. The health institutions, including those belonging to all spiritual authorities in the country, only care about their own reinforcement, while each sect seeks to strengthen its own institutions, which makes them complicit in pushing towards the collapse of the health sector, knowingly or ignorantly."
Dr. Skaria affirmed that "those accustomed to dealing with the health sector and people's health in this atmosphere, as if they are talking about a service ministry, and those who treat medicine as if it were asphalt for paving roads, we do not expect them to raise their voices or to feel the seriousness of the collapse of this sector."
He concluded: "Regardless of any political changes in the country, nothing will change for the better in the health sector, unfortunately. We live in a general atmosphere of corruption, in a system that has universally failed, and mere political solutions here or there, or forming governments, or presidential elections alone are no longer sufficient."
