By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 27 November 2013:
Parts of the health service are being allowed to deal directly with private contractors in . . .[restrict]what is seen as an effort to streamline the system and cut corruption.
The government issued two prime ministerial directives allowing the Ministry of Health to negotiate by itself for the construction of maternity hospitals in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Sebha, and the Ambulance and Emergency Services to buy 500 ambulances.
Any attempt by other related organisations to intervene in the process is prohibited and their authority in the matter voided.
Hospitals have complained of shortages of equipment and medicine because of the inadequacies of the state-controlled centralised purchasing system.
In August, the Health Minister, Nureddin Dughman, said that the state organisation for purchasing medical supplies, the Medical Supply Organisation, should be scrapped. He said it was inefficient and corrupt and that hospitals should be able to do their own purchasing. [/restrict]
