From the Daily News Egypt:
“I chose to study medicine because I wanted to help those in need, to make a difference — but it turned out that this was impossible.”
So says Mina Zekry who currently works in a human rights organization, but is a qualified doctor. He was driven out of the profession by the economic hardship and difficult working conditions which are the reality of life for Egyptian doctors.
Zekry says that he found it impossible to survive on the wages he received while he worked as an anaesthesia intern.
“I was working 12-hour shifts, which left no time for outside work in private clinics. My wage — LE 180 per month — didn’t even cover transport costs. Wages are so low they’re a joke. A new graduate doctor receives LE 150 per month, meaning that he’s torn between working with dedication and integrity, and trying to survive financially,” Zekry told me.
Zekry’s experience epitomizes the rigors faced by Egypt’s 170,000 doctors. After six years of university study and an internship year, graduate doctors working within the public health system find that the years dedicated to study are rewarded with long working hours in a pressurized environment for pitifully low financial compensation.
“I myself advised my two younger sisters not to choose medicine because of the problems you face in the job,” Mona Mina, a doctor who has been practicing for 25 years told Daily News Egypt.
“Doctors and medicine are in a bad state in Egypt. Doctors want a reasonable salary, want to work in a decent, well-equipped hospital and have opportunities for education and training — continual training is a fundamental part of the profession,” she continued.
Mina Girgis, a resident doctor based in Cairo’s Tumour Institute says that stressful working conditions affect the quality of service he delivers to patients.
“At the end of my outpatient clinic I’m not the same as when I started my day because of the huge flow and the pressure. We don’t have separate rooms…in one room we’re examining three patients screened off by curtains,” he said.
“Each doctor treats about 10 — 15 patients and my unit treats about 100 people each day in the outpatient clinic. In my department there are 24 beds which are always full. The problem is that we have a huge load, a heavy flow of people coming everyday so the service isn’t that good,” Girgis added.
The Tumour Institute made headlines last month when a surgeon left a towel inside a patient as a result of which she died.
Girgis says that while the treatment offered in the Tumour Institute is compromised by working conditions and poor pay, vulnerable, politically-disenfranchized patients do not often complain.
“People do not usually complain because they are of a very low social standard and are not aware of their rights,” Girgis explained.
The continuing deterioration of their working conditions have propelled Egyptian doctors into action.
In May 2007 they formed ‘Doctors Without Rights’ www.atebaabelahokook.blogspot.com which aims to draw attention to the plight of medical practitioners in Egypt.
The group’s founding statement lists low salaries, negligence in government hospitals and the economic exploitation of patients in private clinics as the motivating factors behind the group’s establishment
Low wages force many Ministry of Health-employed doctors to supplement their income by working in private clinics but, as the founding statement points out, this solution is untenable given that there are 170,000 doctors in Egypt and only 40,000 private clinics.
This struggle to make enough money to live inevitably affects a doctor’s performance, as Mona Mina explained.