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From his office filled with patients, doctors and piles of files awaiting his attention, the new Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani said his priority while in office is to instigate proper management practices for the department. “Our objective is to ensure that Lebanon regains its position as a health care leader in the region, encouraging medical tourism and providing top-level health care service to the Lebanese public,” 44-year-old Hasbani, who is also deputy prime minister, told The Daily Star in an interview Tuesday.
Although a packed schedule is nothing new to the businessman turned minister, who was a partner at global management consultancy firm Booz & Company (subsequently rebranded Strategy&), Hasbani said he would look to make quick fixes in what is slated as a short-term Cabinet before elections expected in May.
“Because the time is short, what we can do are the quick fixes and reforms while forming a strategic platform for the health industry so that whoever comes after us can have something to implement … They won’t have to start from scratch,” Hasbani said.
He was adamant that the ministry needed an institutionalized management practice at all levels.
“Last year, the private sector was tasked by the ministry with managing the admission of patients to hospitals. This created efficiency within the process, so we are working on continuing this while also improving because it it’s not perfect as it has only been in operation for a few months,” the minister said.
He added this would reduce the health care bill, reduce the risk of mismanagement, and improve the performance of hospitals.
His telecoms business background as former CEO of Saudi Telecom Company International also means he plans to update technology in the health sector.
“Part of my work is to bring the world of technology into the ministry so there will be more automation, more applications and digital processing of files and interfaces with the public, patients and doctors,” Hasbani said.
The minister also addressed comments made by the Union of Private Hospitals earlier this month regarding a major funding crisis causing a shortage of beds in hospitals.
He agreed that there was a lot of pressure on Mount Lebanon and Beirut in terms of hospital space.
“Budgetary solutions, operational solutions and encouraging investments in the hospitals from the private sector is extremely important at this point in time, knowing that there is a high demand for hospital beds.”
He said that between 2011 and 2015, the number of patients requiring hospitalization rose 20 percent.
Added to this are more than 60,000 Syrian refugees being treated in Lebanese hospitals as well as a number of Palestinian and Iraqi refugees, Hasbani explained.
“This brings the number to around 100,000 non-Lebanese patients being treated in Lebanese hospitals,” he said.
This, combined with low investment in hospitals over a number of years has placed additional pressure on health providers.
“The situation in Lebanon, previously, was not ideal for investment, so we are trying to encourage it in the health industry but also reinforcing the capacity and work of public hospitals to help relieve the pressure on hospitals,” he said.
Hasbani said another way to prevent wastage of free bed space is to create a system allowing hospitals to pool available space.
“We are squeezing the system to the maximum in order to provide a hospital bed for a patient once he is out of the emergency room but still needs post-emergency treatment … We are enforcing a process of collaboration between hospitals in each area, together with the Red Cross,” so that if beds in one hospital are not available, patients will be taken to one that has free space.
This, he said, will “avoid cases where a patient is rejected at the hospital door.”
Hasbani is also looking to strengthen the ministry’s call center and wants to have an operational cell within the center that coordinates ministry representatives across the country.
This will facilitate the proper processing and transferring of emergency cases, as well as improve patient care, he said.
He also added that the food safety campaign launched by his predecessor Wael Abu Faour would cut down on hospital admissions.
“We will be more aggressive now except that it will be standardized, but not in a way that hurts the reputation of the Lebanese restaurant industry. We will expand the crackdown to the entire value chain, not just the restaurants,” Hasbani said, adding that the value chain starts at the source, with crop growers, the pesticides used in agriculture, and the quality and storage of products during transportation.
“This is why we need to work with other ministries, such as the Economy, Agriculture and Public Works ministries,” he added.
The minister said he wants to be more severe because “we have seen increased cases of health issues that came from somewhere in that value chain, so we need to make sure this is in order.”
Perhaps one of Hasbani’s more ambitious and significant visions is to increase domestic drug production.
“We want to locally manufacture medications and become a regional supplier to widen the market, both short- and long-term … everybody is doing it, and we have a strong local manufacturing system but we just need to make sure that we give them the right environment to succeed because we are a free market economy in the end,” he said.
The Health Ministry is one of the most important ministries dealing with human services, and Hasbani said he sees three distinct roles: “We play the role of insurance as we are the biggest insurer in the country … covering more than 34 percent of hospital bills, and we issue chronic disease medication treating 10,000 to 12,000 people annually.”
Hasbani added the other two roles were medical operator and sector regulator, as the ministry is the service provider and manager of public hospitals.
He said his ministry’s style of work may differ from that of his predecessor’s but the substance will remain the same.
“We want to make sure our system becomes permanent and survives the test of time,” he said.
Hasbani added that if things were done properly, Lebanon would be a regional leader.
“We want to encourage whatever we can do to facilitate the licensing and development of hospitals, whether through foreign direct investment or local investment in this sector.
“This is because Lebanon has a clear differentiator in terms of the quality of its physicians and the availability of talent … that no other country in the region can compete with if we do the right things.”