The National Centre for Health System Reform organized a workshop in Tripoli on Saturday entitled “Developing the Libyan Health System”, the Libyan Health Ministry reported today.
It reported that a number of experts presented working papers on the development of the health system in terms of five main axes: health care, medical education, medical supply, digital transformation, financing and management, and health legislation.
For his part, the Director General of the Centre, Adel Al-Deeb, stated that the aim of the workshop is to benefit from regional and international experiences to develop the health system in Libya, indicating that it was agreed to complete the study of the health models presented during the first half of this year, in order to adopt a model and apply it in Libya.
Background
It will be recalled that the NCHSR was created by the Faiez Serraj government in March 2017 and launched at an event by Serraj in October of the same year.
The NCHSR’s aim was to coordinate national efforts and international backing to reform and modernise the system. Headed initially by Samir Sagar, it operates in collaboration with the health ministry, and springs out of the Libya Health System Strengthening Programme (LHSS), set up between the Libyan authorities and the European Union.
The NCHSR’s goals are to:
- Restructure the health system
- Ensure full funding for a service that is free to patients at the point of use
- Involve the private sector
- Have a healthcare service in line with international standards
- Decentralise
- Have a service where health workers, whether in the private or public sectors, are properly paid for their work
- Develop a master plan to achieve universal health care in Libya
No deep reforms achieved
However, after a good initial start, the reforms were unable to make the deep changes needed to make the free state-sector health system able to meet the general public’s health needs. A very large percentage of Libyans still use foreign countries for their health needs. Tunisia, Turkey and Jordan are the most common destination because of easier access to visas. For those with Schengen visas, various European destinations are used.
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