They explained that “most of them are unemployed due to the repercussions of their chronic illness and their need for continuous treatment with short time intervals.” The attending patients wished “to find a quick solution to their suffering, especially since the difficult conditions lead many of them to miss treatment sessions, which poses a real threat to their health.”
Al-Abyadh expressed his understanding of “their conditions that prompted him, since his assumption of the Ministry of Public Health, to give special attention to dialysis patients, which was reflected in the amendment of the tariff more than five times, which led to an almost tenfold increase from what it was in the past.”
He explained that “the Ministry of Public Health offered the Hospitals Syndicate the following solution, approving the new tariff presented by the Syndicate in conjunction with a moving index to avoid rapid changes in the currency exchange rate, and giving part of the dues as advances to avoid delay in payment by the Ministry of Finance.”
Al-Abyadh hoped that “there would be no delay in approving this solution in the General Assembly of the Hospitals Syndicate,” calling for “stopping, during this intervening period, asking patients to pay treatment directly and in dollars,” saying: “Everyone is in pain, but it is our medical and humanitarian duty not to solve the problems of the health sector.” at the expense of the weaker party.
He pointed out that “responsibility towards dialysis patients is ethical, professional, and criminal in the event that the patient dies because he is unable to obtain his treatment.”
Al-Abyad concluded, “The Ministry’s determination to carry out its duties towards any health institution that does not abide by the dictates of professional conscience,” relying on “the cooperation shown by dialysis doctors and the Private Hospitals Syndicate, especially Captain Suleiman Haroun, and the official guarantors in this field.”