“Those in need of wheelchairs please remain seated until the other passengers disembark,” announced the host on one of the Libyan planes upon landing on the International Carthage Airport’s runway in Tunis while ambulances were waiting beside the plane’s stairs.

“Those in need of wheelchairs please remain seated until the other passengers disembark,” announced the host on one of the Libyan planes upon landing on the International Carthage Airport’s runway in Tunis while ambulances were waiting beside the plane’s stairs.

The plane coming from Benina International Airport was full of potential patients, the healthy people on board were accompanying their sick relatives and friends. More and more Libyans travel to Tunisian hospitals for treatment, as it is getting harder to find treatment in either public or private Libyan hospitals.  Libyan hospitals are often overburdened by the injured from the liberation fighting that took place two years ago.

Although Tripoli, Benghazi, Sabha, Misrata and Al-Abraq airports operate more than 300 monthly flights to Tunis and Safaqes, many patients enter Tunisia through Raas Jadir and Dhabiya land border crossings.

We have oil!

Libyan patients at Al-Yasmeen Clinic Complex in Al-Manar, Tunis outnumbered the Tunisians themselves.

“For two years, I have been suffering from a chronic cough which is destroying my lungs,” said 65 year-old Fatima Abdullah. I have come to Tunis because I have noticed how the health of my relative improved following her treatment in Tunisia,” she said.

In an adjacent room, a Libyan father sat watching his son undergo tests for a nasal problem. “Why doesn’t Libya have hospitals like these despite its oil abundance?” he wondered aloud.

At one of Ibn Zahr Hospital’s clinics, 31-year-old Salima Saad explained, “I brought my son here for treatment and I was approached by some Tunisians at the clinic who wondered why I came here as opposed to going to a good hospital in Libya.”

 Inquiries

Many Libyan patients and their companions stressed that Tunisian doctors and medical staff were shocked by several Libyan cases and the failure of the Libyan doctors to give correct diagnoses of recognizable diseases.

One patient’s companion said: “My father was about to die. Therefore, I brought him to a Tunisian doctor who diagnosed him with tuberculosis and told me that its symptoms are quite obvious and can be noticed easily.”

French experience

Ahmad Wahishi, Chairman of the Founding Committee of Students Union in the Faculty of Medicine in Al-Zawiya University said: “Tunisian doctors have studied and have been trained at French universities thus have great French-based experience.”

 “The fact that Tunisia’s health sector is influenced by the French model has enhanced the Libyans’ confidence that Tunisian hospitals have the best medical staff,” he added.

Wahishi, who is also Head of Scora Committee for the Libyan Association of Medicine, Students and Young Doctors, criticized the shortage of medical equipment as well as qualified staff in Libya. “The pure theoretical information received by Libyan medical students and the lack of any practical training or opportunities to take part in advanced training workshops has led to poor diagnosing skills, which are originally based on discernment and the ability to derive conclusions by linking symptoms with test results.”

 A long way to go 

Fathi Jahani, Chief of Banghazi’s Medical Center and Head of one of Libya’s largest hospitals, said the travel of Libyans to Tunis for treatment is justifiable “to some extent” and is attributed to the poor treatment received in Libyan hospitals and lack of confidence in the Libyan medical organization for “reasons some of which are valid while others are mere rumors,” he said.

“We have a deficiency in some specializations and very qualified doctors in others. However, several measures have been determined to improve the health sector, but we have a long way to go.”

 Will hospitals be built?

The Libyan Ministry of Health has signed an agreement in mid-July with English company International Hospital Cruise to build nine hospitals distributed over different cities as part of the ministry’s plan to develop the health sector and improve medical services.

Minister of Health Nouraddin Dagman said new hospitals will be built in nine Libyan cities. The capacity of each hospital ranges between 120-150 beds and 20 joint English-Libyan medical teams (including doctors, counselors and administrative staff) will operate and supervise these hospitals and train the Libyan medical staff.

Dagman stressed that the implementation period will not exceed 15 months. However, no steps in this direction have yet been made.

Domestic treatment

Former Minister of Health Fatima Hamrush commented on the project saying, “We do not need new hospitals since our hospitals already have a capacity of 21,000 beds,” which is enough to accommodate the Libyan population.

 “It is far more important to finalize the currently uncompleted projects, pay more attention to basic health care and provide physical as well as psychological rehabilitation,” she stressed.

Hamrush believes that the solution resides in “Domesticating treatment with the help of external expertise, improving medical services through training, conducting courses about professional and medical code of ethics, activating the medial responsibility law and holding those who commit medical mistakes accountable,” she said.