Libya's foreign medical service debt exceeds 900 million USD

TRIPOLI, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Libya's foreign medical service debt has exceeded 1.2 billion dinars (900 million U.S. dollars), said Minister of Health Omar Al-Taher on Tuesday.

"The issue of treatment of Libyans abroad is one of the heaviest and most difficult files of the ministry over the past few years," Al-Taher told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

"We demanded to isolate this file, not an escape from responsibility, but in order to devote to the burden of the health sector, which has many problems that need continuous follow-up," Al-Taher said.

Some of the problems are related to Libyan patients treated abroad and others are related to the parties responsible for choosing countries for medical treatment, he added.

Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs and Finance are concerned with treatment of Libyans abroad.

Libya has formed a joint committee with the aim of finding solutions to review the financial budgets allocated to the embassies, which are concerned with a large number of Libyan patients treated abroad," Al-Tahel explained.

Thousands of wounded and ill Libyans are receiving treatment in Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt, at the expense of the Libyan government, Al-Taher said.

"These countries are demanding Libya to pay fees of more than 1.2 billion dinars. Therefore, there is a need to re-check invoices and accounts, which is not as easily expected, despite the allocation of amounts to pay these fees recently," he said.

Clinics and hospitals in Tunisia have refused to reduce the fees of treatment of Libyans, which are about 120 million Tunisian dinars (80 million dollars) over the past seven years.

And Jordan demands Libya to pay medical fees of nearly half a billion U.S. dollars, which prompted the Libyan authorities to initiate financial arrangements for urgent settlement.

The minister stressed that relations between Libya and Jordan will improve after the new Libyan Ambassador to Jordan is in office and a new medical attache is appointed at the Libyan embassy to Jordan. Also, an audit team will be sent to review outstanding invoices.

Libya suffers a political division between eastern and western governments, including two ministries of health.

Al-Taher said that he is personally working to ensure cooperation between the divided authorities and to spare the health sector from political controversy.

Al-Taher also said that the European Union and the World Health organization pledged to provide 40 million Euros of medical assistance to Libya.

"We need international medical assistance in training Libyan medical crews, as well as providing medical supplies systems that we don't have at the moment," he added.

European Union last week pledged a financial support of 120 million euros for 37 projects in Libya. The targeted sectors include health and security.

The European Commission has recently approved a new program of 11 million euros to support Libyan health care sector. Enditem