The challenging circumstances in the hospital and healthcare industries have made it necessary to look for solutions that support the sector's continued operation and halt the trend toward closure. The most notable of which are perhaps the recent mergers, in which the administration of a hospital having trouble providing services because of its financial situation joins another financially stable hospital.

Given the dire circumstances hospitals are experiencing and the fact that Lebanon's economic, financial, and monetary condition has made running costs for hospitals extremely high, hospital acquisition has become near to impossible.

About the course of these mergers, the President of the Syndicate of Hospitals in Lebanon, Sleiman Haroun, explained to Al-Markazia News Agency that it was finally agreed to include Saint Charles and Monseigneur Cortbawi Hospitals to Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

“As some hospitals, like “Hotel Dieu”, have the financial resources to operate others and pay them to maintain their activity and activate it, taking these steps is still preferable to closing. We have also received numerous complaints from hospitals that they are on the verge of shuttering due to the difficulty of securing the operational costs. However, there are no other mergers planned anytime in the foreseeable future,” Haroun stated.

About the public sector’s strike, Haroun noted that it had delayed all hospital transactions, including bills and payment schedules in official departments.

“I want to emphasize how much the hospitals value upholding the rights of their employees, and the importance of them getting their rights. We did not seek exceptions for hospitals, especially given the potential impact on staff morale. The government is expected to work to protect their rights in this situation so that they can perform their duties," he explained.

Additionally, Haroun claimed that the fuel oil issue was getting worse because Lebanon's electricity rationing hours had peaked and occasionally reached 24 hours, which made the pricing of fuel oil to run generators irrational.