By Sami Zaptia.
London, 25 March 2019:
A specialist delegation from Muntada Aid’s ‘‘Little Heart’’ mission of two physicians specializing in therapeutic catheters for paediatric congenital distortions, arrived in Tripoli on Saturday in cooperation with the Tripoli-based Ministry of Health (MoH).
The MoH said that a total of 40 cardiac catheterization surgeries will be conducted at the National Cardiac Surgery Center in Tajura, Tripoli, and 20 therapeutic cardiac catheterizations will be carried out at the Tripoli University Hospital. The team will also train a number of Libyan physicians.
“This work comes within the implementation of the Ministry of Health’s policy of settling treatment inside and reducing spending abroad,” said Minister of Health Dr. Ahmed Ben Amor.
The foreign team of specialists started working as soon as they arrive at the Tajura National Heart Center, who will remain until the end of March.
It will be recalled that on 27 December last year, the London-based charity Muntada Aid had signed an MoU with Libya’s National Cardiac Centre, in Tajura Tripoli, to support it by providing training to their cardiologists and cardiac surgeons and agreeing to conduct ‘‘Little Hearts’’ missions to Tripoli in 2019.
The MoU was signed with Professor Abu Baker Al-Arbi Shibeli, Director General, National Cardiac Centre, Tajura, and Dr Khalid Ben Atya, Head of the International Cooperation Office, the Tripoli-based Ministry of Health.
Muntada Aid describes itself as an international Non-Governmental Organization with its headquartered in London. It says it is working with 24 partner organisations in 18 countries each delivering needs-based projects through local initiatives focused on emergency and disaster relief, health, water security, education and capacity-building.
It will be recalled that the US-based NGO, Novick Cardiac Global Alliance, led by Dr William Novick, has been conducting a similar mission in both eastern and western Libya. It had conducted nearly 750 operations since it started back in 2012.
