On Tuesday, the Head of the Libyan General Medical Council (LGMC), Mohamed Al-Ghouj discussed the protest being organized in front of the Ministry of Health in Tripoli.
“We will organize another stand on Wednesday in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, to demand doctors’ rights and ensure their implementation. Our demands are to activate Resolution (885) for medical personnel, to provide medical equipment and supplies, and to provide a suitable work environment.,” Al-Ghouj added.
He indicated that they are also demanding the payment of salaries for workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the consideration of medical personnel who died while performing their work as “duty martyrs.”
“Medical insurance has not yet been activated for workers in the healthcare sector, despite receiving promises and correspondence from December. Allowances for accommodation and official holidays have not been spent. The unified salary scale has not yet been implemented for all agencies affiliated with the Ministry, and it has not been applied correctly. It failed to include a 50% increase in the salary stipulated in this law, nor did it include the teaching allowance for clinical professors. The preoccupation of the designated Minister of Health, Ramadan Abu Janah with more than one position, distracts from his work within the ministry,” he stated.
Days ago, the Undersecretary of the Libyan Ministry of Health for Hospital Affairs, Saad El-Din Abdel-Wakil stressed the need for international health organisations to “respect Libyan Health Law No. 106 of 1973, and Law No. 17 of 1986 regarding medical liability.”
Abdel-Wakil demanded that international organisations “adhere to the procedures included in Libyan laws when dealing with people with communicable and non-communicable diseases”
This came during his online meeting with representatives of Doctors Without Borders, according to a statement by the media office of the Ministry of Health.
The Undersecretary discussed coordinating efforts to provide treatment services for tuberculosis patients. He explained that opening a department for communicable diseases in the private sector required approval from the Ministry of Health.
He added that “Libyan law does not allow tuberculosis cases to be housed in private clinics. This is only after being equipped with a special section to isolate cases from the second and third categories, according to the specifications stipulated by the Libyan law regarding dealing with patients, and the way they are housed and isolated.”
The official called on the Director of the International Cooperation Office at the Ministry of Health to “circulate Libyan health laws to international organisations and to assure the employees working in the organisations to respect these laws, acknowledge their receipt, and abide by the procedures regulating them.”