Second day of doctors’ strike

A demonstration of doctors outside Manshiyyat Bakri Hospital was dispersed by administrative security on Wednesday morning, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. Doctors at the hospital communicated with the Doctors Syndicate, asking them to facilitate a meeting with the interior minister immediately to discuss what happened.

On Monday, the syndicate called on the Interior Ministry to provide protection for participants in protests outside hospitals on Wednesday, which was the second day of a partial strike.

On the first day of the strike, January 1, thousands of doctors, pharmacists and nurses took part in a one-day strike across the country, in public hospitals and the Health Ministry’s medical facilities, to demand increased salaries for physicians and improved conditions for patients.

Hossam Kamal, a member of the council of the Doctors Syndicate said in a press statement Wednesday, “Doctors are not over the shock of the death of their colleague, Ahmed Abdel Latif, who caught a fatal respiratory infection in the course of performing his duties.”

Demonstrations took place Wednesday morning outside hospitals across Egypt’s governorates, mourning Abdel Latif and calling for immediate reforms.

Their demands include raising the national health budget from its current level — just below 4.5 percent — to around 15 percent of the national budget, raising doctors’ salaries (which average only a few hundred pounds per month), as well as ensuring the security of hospitals from assaults and infectious diseases.

Osama Rashid, another doctor who developed severe pneumonia and breathing difficulties in the course of his work, has been placed under intensive care in a chest hospital in Mansoura.

On behalf of the syndicate, Kamal demanded that the Ministry of Health intervene immediately to transfer Rashid to one of the major hospitals in Cairo and covers the full costs of his treatment.

In a statement, the syndicate said, “How long will the Ministry of Health hospitals remain places for the spread of infection and the killing of doctors and patients, while the ministry does not move to address infection control in governmental or private hospitals?”

“We remind the Ministry of Health and the government [of this], as they asked us to remain patient and not to escalate,” Kamal said, adding that, “the infection of doctors has claimed 19 lives so far. Will we wait for more victims from the ranks of doctors, ignored amid the silence of the government and the ministry?”

According to the syndicate, in some governorates, including Sheikh Zeyad, Daqahlia, Port Said, Cairo and Giza, participation in the strike reached 100 percent.

Doctors participating in the strike accused the managers of several government hospitals of exerting enormous pressure on doctors to break the strike and resume work.

Pharmacists and veterinarians also participated in the strike.

Mohamed al-Saudi of the Pharmacists Syndicate said that the proportion of pharmacists at public hospitals participating in the strike exceeded 85 percent, adding that pharmacists are subjected to intense pressure to break the strike and keep pharmacies open. Arrangements have already been made to ensure emergency and critical situations are dealt with.