Collective Action

Private hospitals in Lebanon have stopped receiving patients, with some exceptions, to protest the “unjust” verdict issued against two doctors in the case of Ella Tannous, a young girl who lost her limbs following a medical emergency in 2015, the head of the syndicate of private hospitals told The Daily Star Monday.

“All private hospitals will be closed, and will keep open whatever is needed for emergencies ... and chemotherapy or dialysis patients, and doing surgical operations that cannot be postponed,” Dr Sleiman Haroun said.

Hospitals including the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Hotel Dieu Hospital and the Notre-Dame des Secours Hospital in Byblos will not be admitting patients from Monday through Saturday, May 15.

AUMBC Sunday released a statement detailing that the move was due to “the newly unjust ruling of the Beirut Court of Appeal against Dr. Rana Chrara and the AUMBC.”

Last week, the Beirut Court of Appeal ordered Dr. Isaam Maalouf and Chrara, as well as their two respective hospitals Notre-Dame des Secours Hospital and AUMBC, to pay large sums of compensation to Ella and her family over what was deemed a case of medical malpractice.

But the ruling has been met with shock and anger by the medical community, and Dr. Sharaf Abou Sharaf, head of the Order of Physicians Friday issued a statement in response:

“The Syndicate Council expresses its astonishment and strong disapproval of the outcome of the judgment in terms of the compensations award, which are completely inconsistent with the economic standards prevailing in Lebanon.”