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Libyan doctors will be trained by the NHS in a deal agreed by Cabinet ministers with Colonel Gaddafi's regime before the Lockerbie bomber
was released, the Standard reveals today.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham flew to Tripoli in June where he met his Libyan counterpart and discussed collaboration between the countries.
Memorandums of understanding between the NHS and Libya were signed by Mr Burnham's predecessor Alan Johnson in Geneva last May.
Mr Burnham's trip was the second to Libya by a health minister in the past year. Dawn Primarolo,
now the Children's Minister, travelled there in November.
The Health Secretary's spokesman said the main reason for his trip in June was to press the Libyan government to locate a missing child, Nadia Fawzi, snatched during a custody dispute. He part-funded the trip himself.
But he was accompanied by Helen McKenna, the head of DH International, which co-ordinates NHS policy overseas, for the official business with Libya's health minister Mohamed Hijazi.
DH International said they met “to discuss Libya's health agenda and areas for collaboration. The Libyan ministry of health is keen to make arrangements for doctors to train in the UK”.
The health agreements were struck over the same period that the Government has been accused of trying to please Colonel Gaddafi.
At the same time oil and trade deals were being discussed by other ministers and Libya was demanding the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdulbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who was freed last month.
Under the deal, Libyan medical staff will now be given a year's instruction in Britain, beginning this year. Other forms of co-operation will include a link between Moorfields Eye Hospital
and the main eye hospital in Tripoli.
The deal also includes collaboration on bone marrow transplants and the development of primary care.
Among agreements are training opportunities in the UK for Libyan medical staff in areas such as intensive care, anaesthetics and endoscopy.
Specialist training with the Royal Colleges will be given in areas including surgery, paediatrics,
obstetrics and gynaecology.
A Health Department spokesman said: “Co-operation with other countries is standard and sensible practice.
"It is nonsense to suggest that discussions between the Government and Libya on health matters have anything to do with other arrangements.”
Mr Burnham's office stressed that he had never discussed trade or the fate of Megrahi with the Libyans. Neither was he put under pressure to please the Libyan authorities. Health cooperation
with Libya had been increasing since 2005.
However, opposition MPs said it appeared to fit a pattern of measures to appease Col Gaddafi, including the release of Megrahi, who was convicted of killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing.
He is terminally ill with cancer. The Scottish authorities said they released him last month on compassionate grounds, sparking a major political
row.
It intensified yesterday when police leaders accused the Government of being willing “to sell its soul for trade deals” following the disclosure that Jack Straw agreed that the killer of Pc Yvonne Fletcher would not be brought
to justice in Britain. She was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in 1984.
Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats said: “This appears to be part of a concerted strategy of appeasement which has seen the Lockerbie bomber go free while denying justice to the family of
Yvonne Fletcher.”
Tory shadow foreign secretary William Hague said: “The suspicion and confusion surrounding
ministers' dealings with Libya will only be sorted out by the independent inquiry we continue to call for.”
Britain's sweeteners for Gaddafi regime
Special forces training Libyan troops
The SAS has reportedly been training Libyans in advanced desert warfare for six months. The government denies this is linked to the release of bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
Yvonne Fletcher's killer won't be tried in the UK
Britain will not extradite anyone suspected of the 1984 murder of the young WPC outside the Libyan embassy in London.
Lockerbie bomber released
A minister assured the Libyans that Gordon Brown did not want Megrahi to die in jail from cancer. He was freed on compassionate grounds.
Trade backing
Britain is supporting Libya's bid to join the World Trade Organisation.
Reader views (33)
I guess we should train them. They have trained our Doctors to take bribes and lie about the health of Terrorist. Let Brown keep digging. He never saw a terrorist he didn't like. Let's get it over with, let's just bring all the terrorist to the UK. Beyond words
- Ruckus, Myrtle Beach USA
Wow, so much ignorance in one post. Well done
- Thegreatsage2000, London, 16/09/2009 19:33
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I guess we should train them. They have trained our Doctors to take bribes and lie about the health of Terrorist. Let Brown keep digging. He never saw a terrorist he didn't like. Let's get it over with, let's just bring all the terrorist to the UK. Beyond words
- Ruckus, Myrtle Beach USA, 16/09/2009 06:42
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Once again the labour government can be brought for a price.
- Vince, London, West London, 15/09/2009 22:21
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Won't treatment by NHS doctors be a punishment for Gaddafi? He should have cut a deal to get some from the private side.
- Jim, Chicago, USA, 15/09/2009 22:15
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I believe when these gangsters are booted out of office they will try to change their appearance to avoid detection,-Darling will stop dyeing his eyebrows,Mandelson will grow a beard,Brown will colour his hair a deep communist red,and Harman will change her sex,-its only a theory,but who can be sure?
- Constipated Sloth, Communist Britain, 15/09/2009 16:56
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I wonder if Brown will deny all knowledge and I bet this has been brokered my Mandelson I also wonder are they going to ask the Libyians for asylum when we get them out.of office. I would also like to think before they escaped we could arest them all for being traitors to Britain and charge them with high treason before they were able to ask for asylum
- Jacqui Williams, peterborough cambs, 15/09/2009 16:18
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It don't pay to be offhand with Libya.Clearly there are interests there for the UK or this would not be happening.We dont have too many friends in the middle east.Everyone who posts here probably fills up the car without a thought of where it came from or will eventually come from Just a thought to ponder.
- Tony Essex, Uk, 15/09/2009 15:48
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Sleazier and sleazier. This filthy socialist government knows no shame and will stoop to any level.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 15/09/2009 15:23
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How soon can we expect the first case of "Lybian doctor claims asylum", or "Lybian doctors did not turn up for work.." Please, oh please, let us use the training places for our own young doctors. Anyway, why can't Lybia use its enormous wealth to build teaching hospitals there?
- Beatriz, London, 15/09/2009 14:51
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You know things are deperate when your only friend left in the world is mad dog Gadaffi, "ELECTION NOW",-also where dod Burnham get his eyebrows painted?
- Constipated Sloth, Communist Britain., 15/09/2009 14:48
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This government would rather make deals with terrorists than look after its own!
- Wa, Oxfordshire, 15/09/2009 14:47
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Typical,will train foreign people but say they have not got the money or resourses to train British doctors.At the NHS practice I have to go to,of the seven doctors there,not one is British,disgusting,but true.
- David, london, 15/09/2009 14:30
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London's medical schools and teaching hospitals are world-class, and also need an influx of foreign students to keep afloat. It's all quite normal, nothing new, or newsworthy here.
- Aidan Reid, london, uk, 15/09/2009 13:47
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what next gaddafi in the cabinet.i would not bet against it the way things are going.
- John Mckim, glasgow.uk, 15/09/2009 13:47
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I am starting to feel really embarrassed about being English. Mr. Brown, how low can you go?
I can only hold my breath and wait for the next election.
I am certain that the British people will let Brown no in no uncertain terms what they think of his "policies".
- Sidney Marks, London, UK, 15/09/2009 13:36
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This absolutely stinks. Please, please can we have an election before any more damage is done to this country's already shattered international reputation. We'd be a global laughing stock if these shameful deals were in any way amusing.
- Beyond Satire, London, 15/09/2009 13:14
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Confirmation from PM regarding health care in the New World Order, that all citizens should have an equal chance for care.
- William, Hay~Heath UK, 15/09/2009 13:08
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Ahmed in London -. Do you really need 5 guesses as to why law abiding citizens are upset about this deal?
- Rob, london, 15/09/2009 12:50
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This is realpolitik. It's exactly as you put it Ahmed.
- B Williams, Friern Barnet, UK, 15/09/2009 12:45
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Pure utter disgrace doctors here can not get jobs yet brown sucks up to this tin pot dictator
- Terry Chambers, London, 15/09/2009 12:44
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Brown the Clown is going down...at the next Election!
- Andrew, Ely UK, 15/09/2009 12:36
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If Libya are so rich Ahmed, then they can invest in there own education system and train there own doctors, instead of using there wealth to sponser terrorists and there disgusting beliefs and actions !
- Brian, Wiltshire, 15/09/2009 12:34
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It must be obvious to all but sycophantic Labour supporters that we have the most corrupt government possibly in the history of Parliament. One can only imagine the deals that they would have made with Hitler.
Lockerbie, Yvonne Fletcher, they mean nothing to these despicable bunch of liars. The mere fact that the fraudster Mandelson is in the government tells you everything you want to know about them.
- James, Braintree UK, 15/09/2009 12:06
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Why is Brown so determined to lose by a landslide?
- St, London, 15/09/2009 11:45
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mm! I don’t understand the point of this article. So what if Libyans doctors are trained by the NHS. Libya is a rich country and is paying for this training. I don’t see the British government sucking up to poor African countries and training their doctors and nurse. It’s all about money. The Western government are not doing all these things for free so calm down and accept reality.
- Ahmed, London, 15/09/2009 11:36
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Plainly the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
- Matthew, London, UK, 15/09/2009 11:30
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we need to overthrow this government as people united
- Rsaviour, lonodn england, 15/09/2009 11:07
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Yet more fall out from the serpentine politics of Bottler Brown and the SNP.
- Ted, London, 15/09/2009 10:47
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No deals?
LOOKS LIKE PLENTY OF DEALS TO MY FADING EYES.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 15/09/2009 10:46
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Remind me not to get ill in Libya.
- Notta Mandelson, N London, 15/09/2009 10:17
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Lets go the whole hog and train a few libiyans to be MPs
- David Smith, Croydon, 15/09/2009 10:00
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The constant denials that 'no deal' was made are beginning to look like blatant lies.
Has this government no shame ?
- Hansel, London, 15/09/2009 09:46
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Marvelous, there are doctors sat on waiting lists for training places, but this government can find places for our new friends. And I see the Dim Prawn had her dead hand in this pot for this one too. One can almost see the catch-nets being set up for the coming election apocalypse.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark, 15/09/2009 09:36
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