The head of the Libyan Doctors Syndicate, Mohamed Al-Ghouj, said in a special statement to our source today, Thursday, that all the decisions taken by the national unity government from the beginning of its assumption of its duties two years ago towards doctors are all against them, referring to the agreement with the government to activate Resolution 885 to increase salaries, and then change the decision to the unified salary, “let us be surprised by the classification of the Ministry of Finance for doctors according to contracts 418, so that our grades do not increase until we hand them a master’s or doctoral thesis, so that the grade rises to 13 or something else, and previously we agreed with the Ministry of Finance during a meeting in the Ministry of Health that it be done according to the grades and allowances that correspond to them when starting”.
Al-Ghouj confirmed that a large group of doctors had their salaries reduced to less than half of it, which is supposed to increase according to the allowance, in addition to that some doctors who have 20 years or more of experience have been suspended to nine degrees only, meaning that they are getting paid less from his basic salary, in return, the administrative staff in hospitals with the same date of appointment of doctors receive more than the doctor.
Al-Ghouj explained that the salary should be calculated for us from the date of commencement to how many years of experience corresponds to the allowance and degree, and we also demanded that specialists and consultants be increased by 30% of their salary, and another percentage increased for medical staff, adding that it is unreasonable that a doctor works and has more experience from 20 years old and maintains the ninth degree in exchange for another person who works for the same period and receives an allowance of 13 or more, as the doctor receives less than the administrator.
Al-Ghouj also confirmed that the Medical Syndicate in Libya sent several correspondences to each of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health, indicating that the Syndicate did not receive a response from the Council of Ministers, while the Ministry of Finance refused from the ground up to receive the correspondence regarding the salary increase according to the degree.
The Doctors Syndicate concluded by saying that we have reached a stage where the majority of doctors in Libya at the Eye Hospital, Misrata Hospital, and Al-Zawiya Hospital submitted their resignations, and others threatened to resign and retire because of the government’s methodology, “which was against us in most issues, and this is what we have reached from a farce that we have not experienced before.”