The news from Egypt that the Egyptian Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, suffered a heart attack, in conjunction with the announcement of the arrest of a number of ministry leaders on charges of corruption, caused an uproar in Egypt and the Arab world.
The uproar was increased by the government's announcement of the minister's absence due to illness, and the assignment of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, to the tasks of the Ministry of Health temporarily - late at night - and media professionals close to the authority in Egypt conveying assurances that she would not return.
In fact, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Osboa said that the minister is in good health and did not suffer a heart attack, but rather preferred to stay away from the scene under the pretext of health reasons as a last resort until the investigations into the corruption case are completed.
She demanded a proper exit .. Behind the scenes before the resignation of the Minister of Health
Birth and study
December 31, 1967: Hala Mustafa Zayed was born in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
1991: She received her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Zagazig University.
1992: Zayed worked as a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology at the hospitals of the General Authority for Hospitals and Educational Institutes at Heliopolis Hospital in Cairo.
She obtained a diploma in obstetrics and gynecology from Ain Shams University, then a diploma in hospital management from the American University in Cairo.
She obtained an MBA from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, then a Ph.D. in Business Administration also from the same academy (private).
From 2006 to 2018: Zayed held many administrative and advisory positions in the Ministry of Health, and was a member of various committees, associations and institutions, including the armed forces.
sudden choice
June 14, 2018: Zayed was sworn in as Minister of Health before President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, which raised a storm of questions about the reasons for her selection for this position. Zayed was not among the top doctors with scientific contributions, or senior university professors, as usual, in appointing her predecessors.
It is interesting that the minister, who is threatened to leave her position because of a corruption case that took place within the corridors of her ministry and is investigated by the relevant agencies, took the position of head of the Anti-Corruption Committee at the Ministry of Health, and also the position of a member of the anti-corruption coordinating committee.
- Egyptian journalist Anwar Al-Hawari presented a comparison between the way the Ministers of Agriculture and Health left their posts after the relevant agencies exposed corruption cases within the two ministries. The minister was forced to resign in September 2015 and was arrested, while the minister was transferred to a private hospital in October The first is 2021, then I got convalescent leave.
- Egyptian journalist Taha Khalifa called on the government to respond to rumors about Zayed's involvement in the ministry's recent corruption case, and that one of the accused gave her a luxury car.
military wallpaper
Hala Zayed’s sudden assumption of the Ministry of Health raised a number of rumors and gossip around her that were not proven true, including that the reason behind her holding a large number of positions in bodies affiliated with the Egyptian army is that she is from a military family, and that her father holds a high position in one of the sovereign bodies.
The well-known Israeli analyst about his relationship with his country's intelligence, Eddie Cohen, published - earlier - a video clip of Hala Zayed, where he described her as "the six Hanim Hala Mustafa al-Sayyid Zayed, the daughter of the brigade, the wife of the brigade and the mother of the next brigade, God willing."
Egypt’s Minister of Health Al-Sisi 🇪🇬 Six Hanim Hala Mustafa Al-Sayed Zayed, the daughter of the general, the wife of the general, and the mother of the next general, God willing.. She says 15 cases of Corona 2 🦠 Egypt come from Saudi Arabia every day..!!
She wants to throw her balls at Saudi Arabia.. It's Egypt, which has corona, not Mecca 🕋 Oh six
pic.twitter.com/V5MlF4dzMq
— Eddie Cohen אדי כהן 🇮🇱 (@EdyCohen) March 23, 2020
Some - including Khaled Refaat, a member of the former presidential campaign of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi - indicated that the minister only practiced medicine for one year after graduating from university, noting that her kinship to an important member of the Sovereign Council and the rank of her father and (former) husband are the reason for choosing her. For all important medical councils and institutions.
- Mohamed Al-Ashhab, the ex-husband of Dr. Hala Zayed, caused a previous crisis for the minister after circulating a video clip of him standing in front of his house among a large group of citizens, to receive requests from parents of students who want to obtain a recommendation from the minister that qualifies them to enroll in nursing schools.
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Al-Ashhab did not deny what was circulated, and said that the people of the center and the city have been meeting with him weekly for a long time on Friday of every week, to meet their needs and help them, whether in their children entering nursing schools or providing places for their patients in Qalyubia hospitals, especially during The period of the Corona pandemic and before it, adding, “The people of my country and Ashmaneen,” as he put it.
The Minister and the Brotherhood
Hala Zayed’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood was an important part of her career, and may have been one of the justifications for her appointment as Minister of Health, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. Zayed had a role in the events of June 30, 2013, when she changed the locks and staff of the Ministry of Health’s general office to thwart the attempts of some of the ministry’s leaders From the Brotherhood to transfer important papers, documents and files outside the ministry.
- Following this position and after the military coup on July 3, 2013, Hala Zayed held the position of Chairman of the Committee for the Management of Medical Hospitals Retained, and the number of 25 hospitals affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The former spokesman for the Ministry of Health - in the government of former Prime Minister Hisham Qandil - Yahya Moussa explained the secret of Zayed’s selection for the position by saying, “As soon as the coup statement was announced, Zayed presented herself to the military institution as a faithful guard of the ministry and the actual acting minister.” She also took the initiative to provide the names of all associates or close associates. From the Freedom and Justice Party employees of the Ministry's General Diwan to the security authorities to exclude them from their jobs.
- Moussa added in a previous article that "Hala Zayed concealed all the real data of the dead and injured in the raging events at that time, and covered the massacre of the Republican Guard on July 8, 2013, which killed more than 100 martyrs, and reduced the number to 51 victims only.
Controversial
During her career as Minister of Health, Hala Zayed sparked waves of controversy and entered into repeated clashes with several parties, including the Doctors Syndicate, which expressed its anger at the Minister after the death of 3 female doctors and the injury of others in January 2020, following a terrible traffic accident on their way from Minya (south) to Cairo.
- And the quick summoning of a number of young female doctors from the Minya governorate in Upper Egypt, located 250 kilometers from Cairo, to attend a training course in the capital, and the threat of the apologies that not attending will lead to penalties and the implementation of discounts, and then the horrific accident on the road;
The largest percentage of Egyptians found only the Minister of Health, Dr. Hala Zayed, to hold her responsible for the accident.
- Also the issue of not including Corona’s martyrs from doctors to the Martyrs Fund, which guarantees many advantages for martyrs from the army and the police, for which the minister said that she could not include doctors for him and that the ministry would consider the death of Corona “a work injury”, according to what was quoted by a member of the Health Committee in the House of Representatives, Inas. Abdel Halim for Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper;
Which angered a large segment of doctors.
- The Minister clashed with pharmacists after her negative statements, which constituted an insult to them. She said in July 2019 that the absence of one nurse is more influential than the absence of 100 pharmacists.
- Speaking about the nursing teams, the Minister criticized the nurses' excessive weight, and their wearing of the niqab and long veils, which sparked a wave of criticism against them, asking them to focus on what benefits the health sector.
At the same time, Zayed was the first member of the government to be questioned in the House of Representatives since the start of its sessions in 2016, but she escaped the withdrawal of confidence, an interrogation that the opposition interpreted as a response to the regime's attempt to divert popular anger towards the government and not the president.
- As for the most prominent files that brought the attack on the minister, it is the ministry’s management of the Corona file, which witnessed many crises that the ministry tried to jump over with inaccurate statements and numbers.
- A World Bank report stated - last month - that the reported deaths of corona in Egypt are much lower than the actual numbers, explaining that Egypt ranks fifth in the world and first in the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of inaccuracy in reporting the real number of deaths due to corona. Corona infection.
According to news published by Middle East Eye, the report cites research results that compared the official report of the Egyptian Ministry of Health on Corona deaths with the total number of deaths reported during a certain time period using a reliable scale.
The report highlighted the weak investment in the health sector in Egypt and in some Middle Eastern countries as a contributing factor to their poor preparedness to confront the epidemic, noting that Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia do not spend much on building a national health system (as a share of total government spending) compared to other countries. which have the same income.
Minister of Initiatives
- The minister’s name has emerged in conjunction with all the health initiatives launched in the name of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, as she devoted her time and the ministry’s efforts to implementing these initiatives, which crossed the borders to other African countries, which sparked a wave of criticism for neglecting the files of developing hospitals and health units, and improving the conditions of doctors and nurses. .
Some count her role in the president’s initiative to eliminate “waiting lists”, as she performed 381,000 urgent surgeries to prevent the accumulation of new waiting lists, as well as her role in efforts to eliminate the C virus and declare the country almost free of the virus, which she praised. many international organizations.