Deputy Prime Minister Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani launched in details Health Sector strategy in Lebanon “Health 2025”, during Beirut International Healthcare Industry Forum organized jointly by the Ministry of Public Health and Al-Iktisal Wal-Aamal. Hasbani started by presenting a demographic map of Lebanon, noting that the population in Lebanon stands at 6.1 million, among them 4.6 million citizens and 1.5 million refugees. The Lebanese national income amounts to 52 billion dollars. The sharp reduction in growth is due to the displacement crisis between 2011 and 2015.
 
The future vision

Deputy Prime Minister Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani discussed the five factors that build the future Strategic vision. These factors are: maintaining the high position of Lebanon in the medical sector, providing the Universal health Coverage for all Lebanese people in a way to constitute a fundamental pillar to the strategy, adopting good governance, achieving sustainable development and attracting investments and medical tourism.

Hasbani added that eight strategic initiatives deriving from the aforementioned factors have been identified: ensuring universal coverage and digital Health record, launching the digital Health, responding effectively to emergency cases, promoting food safety, enhancing intensive care capacities, developing governmental hospitals and primary healthcare network, supporting pharmaceutical sector, digitizing the Ministry’s services: activate and speed up proceedings, in addition to draft laws and decrees related to the regulation of medical professions, specialized hospitals, blood banks, financial ceilings of hospitals and others.
 
Universal Health Coverage

Minister Hasbani announced the launch of Universal Health Coverage Program that aims at ensuring a Universal health Coverage  for all the Lebanese citizens from now on, upon the implementation of regulations related to this strategy, knowing that the work towards that way to implement regulations and related infrastructures have started from today.
 
Hasbani added that the persons that shall benefit from this universal health Coverage are citizens that are not covered by any insurance entity.
He noted that Health Ministry and PHC centers’ capacities will be mobilized to find and attract beneficiaries and register them in PHC Program.
As for the network of service providers, hospitalization will remain in private and governmental hospitals, but medical examinations will be limited to governmental hospitals and Healthcare centers.

The second part of Health Strategy

Health Minister added that teleconsultation services will be developed by linking PHC centers to patients at their places, patients in Healthcare centers to doctors in Observation centers at hospitals, and remote hospitals to the most developed hospitals to provide support when necessary and counseling during surgeries.
 
Hasbani approached also the Emergency response plan in which applications will be used to determine the closest and most suitable hospital, and join all concerned entities from ambulance to hospitals, inspection doctors and citizens to the system and the plan. This plan will also determine mechanisms for problem solving, instant follow-up, and society training to improve its ability to respond to crisis.

Health Minister finally stated that this strategy will bring a paradigm shift for Health sector in Lebanon, hoping that this will strengthen cooperation between the different concerned Ministries and all the parties concerned in Health sector in a way to fulfill the Lebanese’s Dream and our dream in a developed health sector that meet different needs and maintains its first rank at the Arab Level and the developed-nation status.