Syrian refugees in Lebanon - referral care at a glance final report – January to December 2015

UNHCR’s public health approach is based on primary health care (PHC) strategy. Secondary and tertiary health care institutions in Lebanon are mostly private and cost is a significant barrier to access. To harmonize access to secondary healthcare and manage costs, UNHCR has put in place referral guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOP) to support access to life saving and obstetric care. The costs covered by UNHCR vary according to the type of service provided and the vulnerability status of the refugee.

UNHCR contracts a third party administrator (TPA) to manage the referral care system. In March 2015, a new TPA took over the administration of the referral care system.

At the end of 2015, 1,055,984 Syrian refugees and 21,348 refugees from Iraq, Sudan and Somalia were covered under the UNHCR referral health care programme.