Libya’s Al-Hadba Hospital cardiac catheterization department returns to work after a five-year stop

By Sami Zaptia.

London, 1 February 2020:

The Ministry of Health aligned to the internationally recognized Libyan government based in Tripoli announced last Tuesday that the Cardiac Catheterization Department of Al-Hadba General Hospital performed 700 therapeutic and diagnostic catheterizations and the installation of permanent and temporary pacemakers during 2019. This, it reports, is ‘‘the highest rate in more than 10 years’’.

The Ministry said that it had taken the decision to restart and equip the Cardiac Catheterization Department, which had been suspended since 2014, and restart operations in mid-February, as part of the Ministry’s overall plan to support the public health sector and restore the operation of all its hospitals to full capacity.

The Ministry of Health revealed that the Departments of Catheter and Cardiac surgery of what was formerly Tripoli Medical Centre (TMC), now upgraded and renamed as Tripoli University Hospital (TUH), had led in this field, performing 1,428 operations in 2010 and 1,099 operations in 2011. Al-Hadba General Hospital had performed only 669 surgeries from 2011 to 2016.