By Sami Zaptia.
London, 9 May 2018:
The Faiez Serraj-led Presidency Council (PC) has granted approval for the Tripoli University Hospital to recruit foreign nurses, the Director of the TUH, Nabil Alageli, confirmed to Libya Herald.
Alageli said the nurses will be recruited from the Philippines, India and Bangladesh. A committee will be sent to the three countries to interview candidates and then a private firm will takeover the process, organizing travel, accommodation and security.
With regards to the vexing issue of payment in hard currency to the nurses, Alageli said that the PC Ministry of Labour has already contacted the Central Bank of Libya requesting that the nurses are allowed to transfer 100 percent of their salaries in hard currency – as opposed to the existing 70 percent limit.
Alageli said that the TUH needs about 850 qualified and specialised nurses. He could not predict when the process of their recruitment would be completed and when would they arrive. However, he said that all the agreements from the Libyan side were now ready. He added that he is doing his best to fast track at least 150 nurses so as to urgently improve the care being offered at the hospital’s ICU, operating rooms and accident and emergency sections.
The plan to recruit foreign nurses to the TUH comes as part of a wider effort by the Serraj PC to reform the Libyan health sector. It will be recalled that in April this year the PC passed a decree reorganizing and converting Tripoli Medical Centre (TMC) into a university hospital. And in March it published a decree renaming the TMC as Tripoli University Hospital (TUH).
These moves by the Serraj-led PC come as part of its wider healthcare reform efforts under its National Committee for Health Strategy Reform (NCHSR) launched last October.
In the beginning of March the PC appointed Alageli as the new director for the then TMC. Alageli had also signed a new maintenance contract with Austrian company Vamed for the TMC at the end of March.
https://www.libyaherald.com/2018/02/20/libyas-health-sector-reform-moving-ahead-says-head-of-committee/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2018/01/28/tripoli-ministry-of-health-to-issue-hard-currency-debit-cards-to-foreign-health-workers/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2017/10/02/serraj-spells-out-reforms-needed-by-libyan-healthcare-system/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2018/03/06/new-head-of-tmc-appointed-part-of-continued-health-reform-programme/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2018/03/29/austrian-medical-services-company-vamed-signs-maintenance-contract-with-tripoli-medical-centre/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2013/07/12/filipino-nurses-escape-sebha-abduction/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2014/12/18/38-indian-nurses-evacuated-from-libya/
https://www.libyaherald.com/2016/05/10/benghazi-nurses-executed-says-is/
