In 1980, seven years after its venture in the charitable
educational service field, Irfan took up a new challenge with the creation of a
dispensary and a field emergency medical operation meaning to cope with hundreds
of war cases resulting from civil war, raging then in the capital and in
Irfan's
dispensary grew fast and became a general hospital in 1983. As war went on,
that hospital project gained a tremendous amount of support from the side of
the public who needed it badly, and from the side of the international
emergency relief communities, why, Irfan hospital played then, in the Shouf
region, the role of an emergency relief platform in the service of war victims
of all political and confessional backgrounds without any discrimination
whatsoever. In 1983, Irfan was the only humanitarian hospital operating in the
high and low Shouf regions of Mount Lebanon with a residents' count of more
than two hundred thousand Lebanese citizens added to thousands of displaced
families who fled to the inner Shouf away from war zones in the capital.
Since
early 1990, Irfan hospital formally known as "Irfan medical center"
was subject to several development and rehabilitation projects implemented by
the mother Irfan Establishment in the process of; repairing war damages first,
and development later, thus hoping to bring the hospital up to the expectations
of the community and to fulfill the needs of the public. Two new floors were
added to the hospital with the support of save the children for the first and
the European Community, for the second, while the French and the American and
the Japanese cooperation programs played a major role in equipping the new
floors and some times in the rehabilitation process that was implemented all
along the period falling between 1990 and 2005.
Alongside
the major projects mentioned above other smaller projects were also implemented
with several local and international donors especially YMCA, CARITAS, the
international red cross and crescent, world vision, the catholic relief, and
many others...
IRFAN
hospital offers the following services:
* External out
patients service (six clinics).
* ORL,
Ophthalmology, endocrinology and dermatology.
* Gynecology and
obstetrics (specialized service)
* Cardiology,
Gastro-enterology, and internal medicine.
* Pediatrics and
neo-natology (specialized service)
* Physical and
functional rehabilitation (specialized service)
* Emergency medical
and surgical services.
* General and
orthopedic surgeries.
* Medical imagery
service, Radio, Echo and CT scan.
* Medical
Laboratories
* A chronic
medication dispensing service.
Medical
beds, disciplines and disposition:
(As
per presently available spaces and equipment)
* 35 beds reserved for hospitalization and surgeries
* 8 beds for infants and neo-natology
* 3 beds reserved for emergency and observation
* 4 day beds reserved for physical rehabilitation
IRFAN
hospital monthly service capacity:
(As
per presently available spaces and equipment)
* 1200 day/bed hospitalization a month
* 300 Emergency interventions
* > 150 surgical interventions and major surgeries
* > 50 deliveries
* 1500 out patients' consultations
* 1000 Medical imagery acts (R.X, ultrasound, C.T)
* 3500 Laboratory tests
* > 180 physical rehabilitation sessions
* Numerous other medical activities (Endoscopies,
E.C.G, etc.)
* Several hundred chronic medicine dispensing
Irfan hospital offers its
medical services on a non profit basis while poor and underprivileged patients
receive free medical attention added to follow-ups including medications and
transportation when necessity is confirmed.
The signed protocols and
agreements with the ministry of health, the social security fund and the
different governmental and non governmental health insurance agencies have
proven to be insufficient to cope with real numbers and types of cases needing
medical attention thus making it most necessary for Irfan's own social fund to
cover the needs of the citizens for what exceeds the above mentioned protocols.
This situation has
negative repercussions affecting the operational budget of the hospital as it
limits, if not, prevents Irfan's capability to implement the most needed
development and rehabilitation projects, including medical equipment
replacement and reconstruction.
Consequent to that situation, and to cope with the needs of the public,
Irfan recurs to fund raising and to partnerships with many of its friends and
supporters locally and internationally with the aim of developing
its services and renewing its equipment when the need arises.
This cooperation already
helped the hospital in developing its medical cadres thru an important twinning
partnership signed with the
Facing the always growing
need from the side of the public, and responding to the governmental calls and
encouragement by the ministry of health,
Irfan and other N.G.O.'s are still trying to offer the necessary medical
services to those who need it and can't afford its cost, therefore, and to do
so, N.G.O. hospitals like ours, are obliged to spend most of their budgets on
covering the cost of the services they offer to the public free of charge thus
making it very difficult to develop, expand infrastructures, or to renew the
old, aging or broken down equipments presently used.
In front of the above
mentioned situation, Irfan still hopes to keep on cooperating with its
partners, in order to be able to develop the hospital services' quality and
quantity in close cooperation with the Lebanese government and ministries, and
according to the overall national future planning, and projected aims and goals
set to reach by the ministry of health. We also hope to find new partners in
this field, with whom we can cooperate and work together for the sake of those
Lebanese who need us on their side, in their effort towards reaching a better
future for the new