CAIRO -
On March 18, 1827, the first medical school was opened in Egypt and the Middle East, when Muhammad Ali Pasha commissioned the French doctor Antoine Clot Bey, with the tasks of establishing the medical school in Abu Zaabal, before moving to Qasr Al-Ainy in central Cairo.
The first purpose of the medical school was to graduate Egyptian doctors to the army, then the goal became for the doctors to provide their services to the general public. The government chose 100 students from Al-Azhar Al-Sharif for the school. Clot Bey took over the management of the school and the hospital, and recruited elite professors from Europe, most of whom were French. According to Al-Ahram newspaper.
Today, Egypt suffers from a shortage in the number of doctors, with many doctors heading to work in the Arab Gulf countries and Europe, and while some see - including a previous statement by the President of the Republic - that the search for money is the goal of doctors to leave their country, others see that other reasons are more important than money. To search for the exercise of their passion outside the borders of their country.
Unsuitable salaries
At the end of last February, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi commented on the emigration of many doctors abroad, pointing out that the salaries they receive in Egypt do not suit them.
Al-Sisi added - during the event of the national project for the development of the Egyptian family - that some people leave Egypt for a job opportunity in other countries, and he gave the example of doctors, saying, "The doctors who (who) walk.. I am a well-arranged alternative, and I do not want to give him a good salary. I am not able to provide him with a good (good) salary.”
Why do doctors migrate?
Under the title "Why do doctors emigrate", doctor and activist Mona Mina wrote that some medical students start studying foreign equations that enable them to work abroad, since the third or fourth year in college, so that they can travel immediately upon graduation.
She pointed to the working conditions of medical staff in Egypt, especially in government hospitals, from very low salaries, few doctors, large numbers of patients, weak capabilities and difficulty in providing a satisfactory medical service. For example, it caused horrific numbers of deaths of doctors fighting the Corona pandemic.
And Mina denounced - in an article published by Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper a few weeks ago - that the doctors' demands to raise the health budget to improve work possibilities and improve the wages of doctors and the medical team did not find a response, and that the only move she sees is more emphasis to prevent doctors from traveling by all means.
Mina stressed that the problems are known and the solutions exist and are known as well, adding, "We just need a will to solve, away from sterile thinking about attempts to prevent travel, which led to more bitterness, and more difficult conditions that suffocate doctors, will certainly lead to more doctors bleeding." .
statistics
A study by the Technical Office of the Egyptian Ministry of Health indicates that the number of registered human doctors who have obtained a license to practice the profession from the Medical Syndicate, with the exception of those who have reached the retirement age, is about 212,835, of whom about 82,000 work in all health sectors, both in hospitals affiliated with the Ministry Or government university hospitals, or the private sector, with 38% of the total number of registered doctors who have licenses to practice the profession, which means that about 62% of doctors in the health system drop out.
Another statistic of the Physicians Syndicate indicates that about 7,000 doctors migrate annually due to arbitrary measures against doctors, and about 10,000 doctors resign from their jobs in government hospitals to work in private clinics.
A shortage of doctors
As a result of the emigration of doctors, the health system faces a shortage of health service providers in Egypt, especially the disciplines that require greater effort and a higher risk in their practice, as confirms a member of the Medical Syndicate Council, Ihab El-Taher.
Al-Taher added - in press statements - that the doctor faces many mistakes during the practice of his work, such as direct exposure to infection, repeated attacks on him by the patients' families, and bearing the burden of lacking any supplies, in addition to the deteriorating condition of most of the doctors' accommodation in hospitals, and that the Doctors Syndicate presented A bill for Parliament to tighten the penalty for assaulting medical facilities and their workers, but this bill has been locked up in Parliament for years.
shortage of specialties
The former Minister of Health, Adel Al-Adawy, asserts that the problem is not only a shortage in the number of doctors compared to the population, but rather in the shortage of very important specialties in hospitals, such as intensive care, emergency and anesthesia, which graduates do not accept due to the inability to open a private clinic.
Al-Adawy added - in statements to Al-Ahram newspaper - that doctors prefer other specialties such as laboratories, children, dermatology, nutrition, speech, nose, ear, delayed speech, and obstetrics and gynecology.
We don't learn anything
While Amr Ahmed - a recent graduate student at the Faculty of Medicine - confirms that many of his colleagues study British and American fellowships, and some of them study German, indicating that he and his colleagues see that the health system during which they worked in the year of excellence does not teach them anything, "Good education is not available to us." in the health system.
Amr added - in statements to Al Jazeera Net - that poor salaries is not a main reason for the emigration of doctors, because most medical students support financially from their families, and also help them by spending on foreign equivalents for a medical degree, "Money is not a major reason, most doctors love medicine, and to complete this The long walk."
Amr points out that, in his view, the reasons for emigration are summarized in the search for a good education, a non-stressed life, working specific hours and getting a good salary, stressing that the new generations are not looking for the dream of a private clinic, but for a human life in which good medical means are available.
Europe opens its doors
Member of the Health Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, Abdel Moneim Shehab, asserts that European countries and the Arab Gulf states are opening their doors to Egyptian doctors, due to the shortage they suffer from graduates of medical colleges, and the European youth’s reluctance to study medicine due to its difficulty and high cost.
Shehab also referred - in press statements - to the skill of the Egyptian doctor in delicate specialties, such as heart, brain and neurosurgery, which makes him a desirable target for these countries, where he receives high wages compared to the wages of doctors in Egypt.