Public investments have improved Libya's health infrastructure, the Ministry of Health reports, but critics claim that citizens are fleeing the country to find better care.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 13/04/10
Libyans are criticizing an April 4th government report that describes the country's health care as expansive and top-of-the-line.
"Reports like this are created at a time of need to tell lies," Libyan rights activist Mohammed Sehim said.
Libya's government spent $2 billion on health care in 2009, according to the Ministry of Health's Information and Documentation Center report. The country has 97 hospitals, 20,689 hospital beds, 40 CT scanners, 20 MRI machines, 9 angiography machines and 3 radiotherapy devices, according to the report.
Critics, however, claim that the picture painted by the Ministry of Health does not reflect the reality on the ground.
"The health condition in Libya is awful, as shown by citizens who are forced to sell their cars and houses to receive treatment in neighboring countries – not at the expense of the authority as mentioned in the report," Sehim said.
A single hospital in Benghazi serves all of eastern Libya from Ras Lanuf to Imsaad, Sehim said –an area containing half of the country's territory.
"These exaggerated figures are no more than a case of puffing up, to dispel the sense of failure," he said.
The World Health Organization ranks Libya's health system as 87th in the world, behind Tunisia (52nd), Morocco (29th) and Algeria (81st). It ranks ahead of Mauritania at 162nd place.
Journalist Adel Latrech criticized the report for its lack of detail on the quality of health care.
"The report doesn't include anything about the quality of professional and educational courses that the doctors joined and the medical conferences that the medical institution they have effectively participated in," he said.
The government avoids "evaluation in most of their sectors so as not to prove their shortcomings and hence be held accountable," Latrech said.
The true measure of health quality, he said, lies with the numbers of Libyans who travel abroad for medical treatment -- a trend that Libyan government officials try hard to spin positively, he said.
"Officials only comment by saying, 'As to the travel of some people to receive treatment abroad, it doesn't reflect a low or high level of the medical care. Rather, it shows how the citizens are keen on their health, and their financial capabilities to look for treatment elsewhere,'" Latrech added, quoting plastic surgeon Dr. Mustapha Zaidi.
Another Libyan doctor openly called for officials to address the flaws in Libya's health care in an article published in al-Watan last February.
"The change process is not hard to achieve, but it needs a scientific methodology capable of employing money rather than wasting it," Dr. Ameur Touati wrote. "Above anything else, officials in the Libyan state have to show some responsibility and stop their repeated claims that the medical services are just fine."
Magharebia was unable to reach the Libyan Health Department for comment.
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/04/13/feature-01.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 13/04/10
Libyans are criticizing an April 4th government report that describes the country's health care as expansive and top-of-the-line.
"Reports like this are created at a time of need to tell lies," Libyan rights activist Mohammed Sehim said.
Libya's government spent $2 billion on health care in 2009, according to the Ministry of Health's Information and Documentation Center report. The country has 97 hospitals, 20,689 hospital beds, 40 CT scanners, 20 MRI machines, 9 angiography machines and 3 radiotherapy devices, according to the report.
Critics, however, claim that the picture painted by the Ministry of Health does not reflect the reality on the ground.
"The health condition in Libya is awful, as shown by citizens who are forced to sell their cars and houses to receive treatment in neighboring countries – not at the expense of the authority as mentioned in the report," Sehim said.
A single hospital in Benghazi serves all of eastern Libya from Ras Lanuf to Imsaad, Sehim said –an area containing half of the country's territory.
"These exaggerated figures are no more than a case of puffing up, to dispel the sense of failure," he said.
The World Health Organization ranks Libya's health system as 87th in the world, behind Tunisia (52nd), Morocco (29th) and Algeria (81st). It ranks ahead of Mauritania at 162nd place.
Journalist Adel Latrech criticized the report for its lack of detail on the quality of health care.
"The report doesn't include anything about the quality of professional and educational courses that the doctors joined and the medical conferences that the medical institution they have effectively participated in," he said.
The government avoids "evaluation in most of their sectors so as not to prove their shortcomings and hence be held accountable," Latrech said.
The true measure of health quality, he said, lies with the numbers of Libyans who travel abroad for medical treatment -- a trend that Libyan government officials try hard to spin positively, he said.
"Officials only comment by saying, 'As to the travel of some people to receive treatment abroad, it doesn't reflect a low or high level of the medical care. Rather, it shows how the citizens are keen on their health, and their financial capabilities to look for treatment elsewhere,'" Latrech added, quoting plastic surgeon Dr. Mustapha Zaidi.
Another Libyan doctor openly called for officials to address the flaws in Libya's health care in an article published in al-Watan last February.
"The change process is not hard to achieve, but it needs a scientific methodology capable of employing money rather than wasting it," Dr. Ameur Touati wrote. "Above anything else, officials in the Libyan state have to show some responsibility and stop their repeated claims that the medical services are just fine."
Magharebia was unable to reach the Libyan Health Department for comment.
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/04/13/feature-01.
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