Speaking during Saturday’s launch of the Ministry of Health’s “100-Day” strategy for reform priorities in the health sector, held at the newly opened Health Specialisations Council in Tripoli, Tripoli based Libyan Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba called for a restructuring of the sector, speaking of its long-standing problems that have plagued it for over 30 years.
He said, “The health sector was the worst ministry I inherited in the government, and 80 or 90% of Libyans were seeking treatment abroad.”
He added, “Patients in Libya are still suffering, and the health sector needs a great deal of effort and real, practical plans.”
He said the state has allocated funds and contributed to some things, but ‘‘you’’ doctors have left nothing. The Ministry was responsible for everything, from contracts to furnishings and so on.
When I arrived, we couldn’t even find statistics on cancer patients or other illnesses.
He said ‘‘You’’ (doctors) in the private sector have plundered the public sector for money. He urged the sector to organise itself to divert and take advantage of the billions spent on privately paid for healthcare abroad. He said the two sectors compliment and need each other.
The clinics today are shameful; they open shops above the clinics, and some even bring in people who aren’t even doctors to practice medicine. No standards are imposed on them.
He said doctors are brought from abroad in commercial deals when Libya has an ample number of locally qualified doctors. The proof of their ability is that he keeps finding working in leading centres abroad.
He said the Health Ministry is full of hundreds of ineffective agencies and is unable to manage itself and is why many entities are run by the Prime Minister’s Office.
He complained that when he took office there was no medicine to be found in hospitals. He said the state Medical Supply Organisation (MSO) is corrupt in its medicine purchasing. It was, for example, using allocated money to import medicine or equipment to pay fake debts.
He said many agents of medicine companies were working within the Health Ministry.
Reacting angrily to the Manager of Khoms Hospital who accused Aldabaiba of posturing in pretending he could reform Libya’s health sector in 100 days, the PM said instead of criticising doctors should be constructive and take it upon themselves to improve the sector.
He said in one health speciality there are 100,000 workers but only 5,000 to 6,000 patients. That is unacceptable he said. He said aftercare and nursing was still poor. This sector needs training.
On internal corruption, he cited an example of a demand for LD 850,000 to fix a CT scan when it took only LD 250 to change its battery. This, he added, so Libyans must queue at hospitals for treatment in Tunisia. He said the corrupt within the sector are milking the state, the people and the patients.
Referring to his recent illness and underscoring that point that there are many good Libyan doctors, he said he was proud to have been treated in Libya.
He told the gathered they need to organise themselves, the private sector and the whole health sector – and he would stand by them and support them.
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