20 April 2022; MEMO: Some 11,500 doctors resigned from government hospitals between 2019 and March 2022, according to a recent report issued by the General Syndicate of Egyptian doctors.
The report also stated that at the end of 2018, 212,835 doctors had a licence yet only 82,000, 38 per cent of the figure, were working in the government sector.
The rate of doctors in Egypt is 8.6 per 10,000 citizens compared to the global average which is 23 doctors per 10,000 citizens.
According to the doctor's union, Egyptian doctors look to emigrate from Egypt, an issue that was exacerbated by poor working conditions during the pandemic.
In 2020, doctors at the Munira Hospital in Cairo threatened to resign en masse after one of their colleagues died from covid. They said the government had not provided them with sufficient PPE or testing.
Egyptian doctors have long complained about poor working conditions and outdated equipment in hospitals.
In 2016, 1,044 doctors resigned; in 2017 2,549 resigned and in 2018, 2,612 resigned. In 2021, 4,127 doctors resigned.
To counter these mass resignations the report suggested that the government increase the training on offer for doctors and improve their work environment to encourage them not to leave the country.
It also suggested increasing the number of students admitted to universities and increasing the capacity at medical colleges.
In 2017-2018 Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAMPAS) announced that approximately one third of Egypt's population are poor yet spent over 55 per cent of their annual income on medical services. That year, the government spent only 4.5 per cent of its public budget on the entire health sector.
The average salary of a doctor after 35 years of working in the government sector is 3,700 Egyptian pounds ($200) per month.
