Rafik Hariri Hospital Fails to Get a Clean Bill of Health

When arriving at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, you may get illuded by the exterior ‘fanciful’ design, thinking that you’re about to enter the establishment that would help positioning Lebanon as a regional medical hub. Unfortunately, it takes you few moments after you get in to realize that it would barely serve as a dispensary in a remote village.

When the hospital was established, it was meant to be a large public facility with a treatment capacity set for around 540 patients. Today, the Rafik Hariri University Hospital has become ‘fraught with danger’, even for patients themselves, as it can hardly provide healthcare services to 100 people who suffer critical cases and chronic diseases.

The MTV news team was granted access to the hospital’s oncology department where it caught a whiff of an odious smell emanating from the sewers “invading” the said division. Beds were consequently moved outside the rooms.

As for the dialysis division, the hospital is plagued with shortages in relevant medications and antibiotics, forcing the patients to get the needed drugs from abroad.

MTV also learned that corruption is deemed ubiquitous at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital over which prodigious squandering has totally consolidated its grip. For instance, maintenance fees for obsolete equipment are being sustained amid a blatant and outrageous absence of the hospital’s management body whose term has expired after being extended five years ago.

The Rafik Hariri public hospital represents a microcosm of a ‘frayed’ state that has been in a coma for a significant period of time now.