By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 26 October 2015:
While the government struggles to keep the health service functioning, morale among the now relatively . . .[restrict]few foreign medical is plunging because they are not being paid.
Hard on the heels of yesterday’s cabinet meeting at which premier Abdullah Al-Thinni pressed for the boosting of health provision, Tobruk medical centre today warned that local banks are still failing to make remittances to the home countries of foreign workers. The medical centre’s director Faraj Galy said that 148 overseas medical professionals from Arab and other countries were not being able to transfer salaries in hard currency.
He said that Tobruk’s mayor had been pressing the Central Bank of Libya to sort out the problem but so far without response. The free repatriation of hard currency was in the contracts of the foreign doctors, nurses and medical assistants, he said. He went on to warn that if the overseas workers left, their departure would create “ a void”.
At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, the chairman of the House of Representatives health committee joined Health Minister Reda Al-Menshawi to look at the bleak position of Libyan health care. Hospitals continue to be dogged by a lack of drugs, medical consumables such as syringes, cannulas and even dressings as well as lack of functioning specialist equipment. The exodus of foreign medical staff continues, the latest departures being Filipinos who were evacuated from Benghazi by consular staff last week. [/restrict]
