Although most of the thousands of Libyans who crowded the Kingdom's hospitals and hotels over the past year have left, representatives of these sectors say they are still waiting on the Libyan government to pay their bills.
Fawzi Hammouri, head of Private Hospitals Association (PHA), said the Libyan authorities still owe Jordanian hospitals around JD55 million of the JD140 million cost of treating more than 60,000 Libyan patients in the aftermath of the North African country's revolution last year.
The PHA president said the association had asked Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh to contact the Libyan government in this regard but has not received a reply from the premier and that some hospitals are having financial problems as a result.
The Libyan committees in Jordan have hired a company to audit the bills, he explained, "and this will prolong the payment process further".
Meanwhile, the Kingdom's hotels are also waiting on around JD20 million that the Libyan authorities owe them for hosting these patients while they received treatment in Jordan.
At a meeting with representatives of the JHA and the Scope Health Insurance Management Co., Ali Bin Jalil, head of the Libyan Patients' Affairs Committee, did not specify when the payment would be made, but said it would be after the recently elected General National Congress convenes.
The congress is expected to convene on August 6.
He also said that Libya had paid around $230 million of its dues to the Kingdom's hospitals and hotels.
(Source: Jordan Times, MENAFN)
