The Information Office of Deputy Prime Minister Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani issued the following statement:

In the context of the implementation of procedures that enhance the credibility and efficiency of the health sector in Lebanon and the transparency of its work, the Minister of Public Health Ghassan Hasbani referred to the Public Prosecutor the medical files of three patients that have passed away in hospitals to investigate into their cases and take all necessary actions in order to determine rights and responsibility.

The Minister of Public Health issued warnings to three hospitals after one hospital refused to receive a patient with heart attack on 11/09/2017, without providing the necessary aid he needed. The Minister stated that this will be the last warning, as the hospital should comply with the act regulating the medical profession and ethics and provide necessary aid to any patient reaching the hospital with critical condition, under the penalty of terminating its contract with the Ministry and withdrawing its license.

Hasbani referred to the Lebanese Order of Physicians as well the files of 18 patients that have received treatment in different hospitals across Lebanon after filing complaints to conduct investigations and take necessary actions.

Hasbani referred also to the Syndicate of Hospitals the file of a patient that received treatment in a hospital after he has filed a complaint to conduct investigations and take necessary actions then report to the Ministry. He also referred to the Order of Nurses the files of two patients that received treatment in two different hospitals after they have filed complaints.

It should be noted that these actions came within the framework of the hard work of the Ministry to enhance the sector and remove all its flaws. In this context, the Ministry received a note of gratitude from the Order of Physicians for its serious follow-up to the case of non-Lebanese physicians that are practicing the profession of medicine without having a work permit, since it succeeded in suspending them from duty in the last weeks.