Algerian Patients Suffer Because Of Missing Their Appointments In Tunisian Clinics

Hundreds of Algerian patients who used to travel to Tunisia for treatment nowadays face health complications due to being late to their medical appointments, since late March, due to the closure of the land borders and the suspension of flights between Algeria and Tunisia, as part of the measures taken to stem the spread of the new Covid19 pandemic.

There are among the patients Algerians who undergo surgeries in Tunisian medical clinics and returned to Algeria, but they were unable to return to Tunisia again to undergo medical observation and follow up their cases by the doctors who performed these operations for them, some of which are delicate and sensitive, which negatively affected their psychological situation, and contributed to the deterioration of their health status, especially since some Algerian doctors refuse to follow up on these cases, and they directed them to their doctors in Tunisia, which deepened the suffering of patients, who hope that the nightmare of the Covid-19 pandemic will end so that they can travel to complete treatment.

Some patients who were following their treatment in some Tunisian medical clinics, found themselves stranded after they were continuing to follow up the medical treatment in those clinics for their cases, and they confirmed that they returned to zero points after they used to regularly travel to Tunisia, to obtain medical prescriptions that helped them to continue treatment, as they missed medical observation appointments in Tunisian clinics, in which they were following the stages of their treatment, and their lack of treatment protocol as well, since the borders between the two countries were closed after they completed the medicines that were prescribed to them by their doctors in Tunisia, while Algerian doctors refused to prescribe the drugs because they did not know their health records.

Tunisia was the preferred destination for thousands of Algerians who go to it annually, for treatment in its private clinics, or to bring some medicines that are missing in Algerian pharmacies, which these days are witnessing an acute scarcity of some sensitive medicines for chronic patients, for example, the drug Levothyrox for treating thyroid diseases and the anti-blood-clotting drug, Lovenox, which is needed by many patients, especially those with atherosclerosis, heart patients, and it has become used in the treatment protocol for people with Coronavirus and the drugs for brain disorders.

While awaiting the decision to reopen the land borders, the Algerian patients’ suffering remains dependent on the extent of the epidemiological situation developing in the coming days, at a time when the price of the Tunisian dinar in the parallel markets experienced a historic decline of about 5000 Algerian dinars per hundred Tunisian dinars, after it exceeded 700 dinars.