Abiad: Emergency Units at RHUH Over Congested due to Financial Situation

Director of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Doctor Firas Abiad said on Thursday that the Covid and non-Covid Emergency Departments at the hospital are severely congested because patients delay visiting their doctors for financial reasons, thus exacerbating health situation to the need for hospitalization.

“The Covid Emergency Department(ED) at RHUH is severely congested. This is not new and has been the situation for weeks. What is new is that the other non-Covid ED has become severely congested as well, and is now only receiving life threatening cases,” said Abiad on Twitter.

“As the financial situation worsens, some private hospitals are demanding exuberantly high cash deposits before admitting patients, driving more vulnerable cases to public hospitals. At RHUH, aid by international organizations allows affordable access to care,” he added.

Abiad said that the rise in Covid cases in Lebanon has resulted in the allocation of more hospital resources, such as nurses and beds, to Covid cases. “Less beds are available to non-Covid patients, compromising their care. This has been noted worldwide in countries experiencing a Covid surge,” he noted.

“Some patients delay going to their doctor for financial reasons, or to avoid exposure to Covid,” he stated, adding that “they come to ER when their condition worsens. Congested ER means further delays. When the patient is finally seen, the needed care is usually more extensive and expensive as well.”

Abiad warned that “the situation will get worse, as more doctors and nurses leave, subsidies dwindle, and more people become vulnerable,” he said, voicing that hospitals do not break down under the pressure of increasing demand.