Health Ministry bill draws mixed reactions from Doctors Syndicate

Doctors will receive their full bonuses in addition to their February salaries, Health Minister Maha al-Rabat assured on Thursday, according to the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

The ministry has earmarked LE6 billion for the bonuses.

The announcement comes shortly after interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree regulating doctors’ affairs earlier on Thursday, the details of which are not yet known.

Rabat said everyone working in the medical field would benefit from the new legislation, which would be applied over the next two fiscal years.

But the final draft of the law has not yet been presented to the Doctors Syndicate, board member Ahmed Hussein told Mada Masr.

Doctors were still waiting for the Health Ministry to publish the bill and provide them with more details before they could discuss it and decide whether or not to accept it, he said, criticizing the ministry for failing to “follow a legitimate and democratic process in issuing the law.”

“How can you issue a law pertaining to health care personnel without involving the people in question in the details?” Hussein asked.

The final decision would be made by the syndicate, whose members would discuss the bill at their general assembly meeting on Friday morning, he said.

Doctors Syndicate head Khairy Abdel Dayem, however, welcomed the law. While it didn’t fully address the doctors’ demands, it was still an achievement, he told Al-Ahram.

He expected the law to appease the doctors, but added that there was still much left to be done. 

On Wednesday, doctors employed at public hospitals across the country went on strike — their fourth day of strike action in 2014. The syndicate called for the strike following the recent death of four doctors as well as reports of illnesses suffered by other physicians employed at public hospitals.

The Doctors Syndicate accused the Ministry of Health of failing to protect their medical staff, and providing inadequate compensation to those who contracted infectious illnesses.