The Cross Hospital in Beirut is the largest psychiatric hospital in Lebanon. It almost looks like a small town, on the heights of the capital, with streets, a park, several buildings hidden behind high fences. Conditions there are spartan because of the economic crisis that is hitting Lebanon.
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The establishment is understaffed and has not received a penny from the state for almost two years, explains Sister Jeannette, the director of the Hôpital de la Croix.
“In the past, the Ministry of Health paid 25 to 27 dollars per patient per day, to provide medicine, food, personnel, electricity… Everything! Now, nothing!”
Sister Jeannette, the director of the hospital of the Crossat franceinfo
“Imagine what situation we are in!”, the nun is in despair. So Sister Jeannette does what she can. It relies above all on humanitarian aid but in fact, it does not even know if it will be able to continue to take care of, and even feed, its 850 residents in the coming months.
And to this disastrous economic situation which affects the entire Lebanese hospital sector, there are the shortages of medicines. With patients suffering from often very serious psychiatric pathologies, the situation can easily spiral out of control. Without their treatment, some could be dangerous for themselves, or for others.
George is a psychotic patient, interned for several months at the Hôpital de la Croix. He feels better but he lives with the anguish of no longer having access to his treatment. “We are in short supply. The medicine is now at an exorbitant price. I cannot stop it. If I stop, I relapse”, he says appalled. And in Lebanon, psychiatric patients are increasingly numerous to stop their treatments, out of stock or become too expensive with the risk that their pathologies worsen and the risk also that there may be a day be, if nothing is done, no more structure to accommodate them.