Medical and allied health staff in Libya have been on strike since 7 September 2026, demanding health insurance, hazard and overnight-duty allowances, and improved professional rights. Participants in the action have confirmed that services will continue in emergency, intensive care and dialysis departments, along with the treatment of life-threatening cases, to avoid disrupting services directly linked to patient safety.
Staff shortages disrupt equipped departments
The strike comes as the Ministry of Health confirms shortages of doctors and nursing staff, which have led some departments and intensive care units to operate below capacity, while others have halted because staff are unavailable.
According to the ministry, shortages are concentrated in remote areas and in the south, east, central regions and the mountainous region, as well as in some medical and nursing specialities needed to operate facilities.
The crisis has exposed a dispute over the nature of the shortfall: whether the sector faces a general numerical shortage or an imbalance in the distribution of staff between regions and specialities, alongside working conditions, difficulties retaining staff and their ability to cover shifts. The Health Action Union is calling for these issues to be addressed on the basis of accurate data on the workforce and the actual needs of each facility and region.
Gap between posts and staff numbers
Dr Suleiman al-Somadi, a spokesman for the Health Action Union, said the sector first needed a unified national database. He explained that the approved staffing establishment contains about 190,150 posts, while the Ministry of Health refers to nearly 350,000 registered workers.
The staffing establishment refers to the officially specified and approved number of posts and employees within government or public bodies and institutions, distributed by speciality and administrative level. The union believes the difference between the two figures requires an official explanation distinguishing the numbers of staff actually working from those seconded, transferred or contracted, as well as indirect workers and vacant posts.
Al-Somadi said overall figures alone were insufficient to measure the shortfall, because the sector's ability to operate also depends on staff specialities, their geographical distribution and their ability to cover the required shifts.
Equipment cannot replace absent staff
The Ministry of Health says the shortage is particularly concentrated among nursing staff and in some medical specialities, and that facilities with the necessary equipment are not operating at full capacity because there are not enough workers. Equipment and beds may be available within a facility, but the absence of a specialist doctor or the required number of nurses prevents the department from operating at its available capacity.
In a statement issued on 5 September, the ministry said it was examining options for bringing in staff from abroad, but denied that any final contract had been concluded. It stressed that Libyan staff would remain the priority, and that any potential recruitment from abroad would be limited to meeting specific needs in the sector, given the recorded shortages in some fields and regions.
The indications of disrupted facilities are consistent with an assessment of health facilities in Libya conducted by the World Health Organisation in December 2024. The assessment found that 8% of facilities were not operating, while 84% were operating partially and needed support to restore their full capacity, amid continued shortages of staff, medicines, supplies and equipment.
The assessment also pointed to the absence of a comprehensive national system for collecting health-sector data and measuring needs and operational capacity. Globally, the World Health Organisation has warned that health workforce crises are not linked to numbers alone, but also include the distribution of staff and the ability to retain them, forecasting a global shortfall of about 11 million health workers by 2030.
Government measures to organise the health workforce
The current strike was preceded by government steps to regulate workers' conditions. In April 2026, the Ministry of Health announced the approval of employment contracts and performance rates for health service departments in the regions, after a 19-year wait. The measure was intended to organise work, issue employment and financial numbers, and improve the distribution of staff between institutions and regions.
In June, the joint staffing-establishment committee completed work on redistributing staff according to institutional needs, addressing staff inflation and settling financial and employment conditions. In August, the government also held a meeting with medical unions that discussed the numbers of staff actually working, appointments, secondments, assignments, training and specialities.
As part of the financial demands, the Administrative Control Authority referred the salary scale proposal submitted by the movement to the competent authorities for consideration.
However, the movement is calling for the announced measures to be turned into measurable decisions, beginning with a count of staff actually working, identifying shortages by speciality and region, and then redistributing staff in line with the needs of facilities. The movement's demands also include approving hazard, remote-area and shift allowances, as well as improving the working environment inside health institutions.
Dr Ahmed Abdel Raouf, one of the participants in the movement, said the process of counting workers had not been completed and that participants had yet to see a serious government response. He stressed that their aim was not to disrupt health services, and that the escalation was linked to the failure to take practical steps.
Libya's health workforce crisis is therefore linked to three overlapping tracks: distributing staff between regions and specialities, settling their financial and employment conditions, and improving working conditions inside health facilities, alongside the need for unified data defining the size of the workforce and the actual operational needs.
