Can Primary Healthcare be Protected as a Public Good in Lebanon Today?

Abstract When Lebanon’s primary healthcare network meets Covid-19 in the midst of an economic collapse and a disaster, what are the crucial questions? In this commentary we look at the impact of three profound shocks (the Lebanese civil war, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the current economic breakdown) which the Lebanese primary healthcare network (PHCN) has met in the last half century. We examine the past and current constraints that these events have imposed on the capacity of the PHCN to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the context of impending economic collapse, rising social and political tensions–and now the devastating explosion in the capital on 4 August 2020–we identify the broader and deeper issues at stake as the Lebanese primary health care network struggles to fulfil its mandate to support the delivery of essential primary health care to Lebanon’s most vulnerable populations. Our finding is that in a protracted conflict, such as the one defining the circumstances of Lebanon now, access to health care persists for the people as one safeguard in which social and moral continuity can be anchored and protected.