On Tuesday, the caretaker Minister of Public Health, Firas al-Abyad, highlighted the importance of a meeting focused on the necessity of public budgets, noting that "merely focusing on firefighting does not lead to any change." During a collaborative meeting on the topic "Health protection in Lebanon between policies and public budgets," held at the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council, al-Abyad stated: "It was important for us in the Ministry of Public Health not to limit our view to the current reality but to have a forward-looking perspective. This was embodied in the national health strategy - Vision 2030, launched by the ministry in 2023, which outlined its priorities."
Al-Abyad added: "This is not the first time a strategy has been developed, but if the strategies are compared with the budgets, the disparity between them becomes evident. For example, previous ministerial data have focused since 2004 on supporting primary healthcare and prioritizing universal health coverage, but this has not been achieved because the budgets did not meet the required needs."
He continued: "The 2024 budget is the best for the Ministry of Public Health as it marks a practical beginning for implementing the health strategy." He pointed out that "thanks to this budget, significant increases have been approved for hospitalization coverage, and the ministry managed to achieve a pioneering step by holding a tender that brought together official guarantors for the procurement of medication. I am pleased to announce for the first time that we managed to reduce the medication invoice by 35%."
Al-Abyad noted that "the proposed budget for the Ministry of Health for 2025 will, for the first time, include specific allocations on two main topics: first, support for primary healthcare as part of the strategy, including medication and coverage, making them entry points for other services provided by the ministry; and second, support for health security through the central laboratory and related activities, where reliance was previously on external aid and the World Health Organization. We prefer that the support be internal from the budget to avoid jeopardizing the program with the cessation of many aids."
He affirmed that "budgets are an annual act, but they reflect long-term strategies." He spoke about his participation in special sessions on budget matters at the World Bank about two months ago, pointing out that "the focus was on the unused portion of the budget, which usually ranges from 5 to 25 percent, representing wasted allocations that have not been utilized," indicating that "the ministry is currently examining this unused part."
Al-Abyad noted that "budgets in many developed countries are based on programs (Program Budgeting), while we are still using budgets based on separate items (Line Item Budget). However, it is required to adopt programs in the budgets as they include spending mechanisms and laws existing in both the health and finance ministries, allowing for better resource utilization."
