Health Minister Firas Abiad announced a number of decisions to establish a solution to the drug and hospitalization crisis in Lebanon, and develop a new strategy for the health system that is compatible with the exceptional circumstances that Lebanon is experiencing.

In a press conference, Abiad announced that "the Ministry will launch, after a month at the latest, the electronic Meditrack system, which will be dedicated in its first phase to medicines for cancer and incurable diseases, because these medicines are expensive and must be secured to patients without any delay."

He explained that "under this system, each patient will be carrying a 'Special ID', according to which he gets his medicine box with a barcode containing a reference as to the importer, the warehouse, and the hospital or pharmacy, which allows the Ministry to track the movement of medicines in a way that prevents monopoly, storage, or smuggling."

He pointed out that "under this system, cancerous and incurable drugs that are given intravenously will be delivered directly to the treating hospital, saving the patient the trouble of obtaining this drug from the Karantina warehouse."

Abyad stressed that subsidies will be provided in full on these drugs as well as on those used to treat mental health patients and psychiatric diseases.

The Minister of Health also announced "an agreement reached with the World Bank to benefit from the loan approved for Lebanon (two hundred and thirty million dollars), so that the bank participates in paying hospital bills, whose cost will remain the same for the patient and the Ministry of Health, while the World Bank pays an additional amount to compensate for hospitals the difference resulting from the massive increase in the dollar exchange rate.