Libya and Malta have signed a health cooperation agreement on Tuesday, 21 Februry. The memorandum of understanding was signed during a . . .[restrict]two-day visit to the island by Libyan Health Minister Fatma Hamroush.
The practicalities of the agreement will be worked out by groups from both countries in the coming weeks.
At the signing ceremony, Maltese Health Minister Joe Cassar said that his health department would be providing help to Libya in a number of areas including procurement, human resources, hospital management training, and specialist English language teaching.
At the signing, Hamroush was presented by her opposite Maltese number with a box of steroids, tetanus and pain medication as a “token”. Hamroush had said that a problem in Libyan hospitals and clinics was a shortage of equipment in some sectors.
A main issue, she noted, was the lack of proper management well before the revolution combined with the drain on resources during the uprising.
“We have good doctors, but not enough,” she said the country needed to tarin more doctors. But there was also a serious shortage of nurses. These needed to be trained.
During her stay in Malta, Hamroush also visited Libyan patients currently being treated in Malta.
The MOU comes against the background of traditional bonds between Libya and Malta being actively re-forged. It took place on the anniversary of the day two Libyan pilots defected to Malta and were allowed to land. The two Mirage fighters were flown back to Libya today, Wednesday, by the two pilots, Colonel Ali Al-Rabti and Colonel Abdullah Al-Salheen. They landed at Mitiga Airport Tripoli’s military airbase, on Wednesday afternoon.
It had been planned that they fly back on Tuesday but bad weather delayed them.
On Tuesday, however, it was reported that the coast guard at Benghazi had, the previous day, arrested a Maltese fishing trawler that had entered Libyan waters. [/restrict]
