Is the Shatby Hospital controversy really over? Fatemah Farag investigates For months now, Al-Wafd has spearheaded a campaign to stop an alleged plan to demolish Alexandria's Shatby Hospital. The campaign went far beyond the Wafd Party's mouthpiece, including legal action taken by the Alexandria-based Association for the Advocates of Human Rights (AAHR), as well as a serious outcry by senior members of the medical profession, and passionate defences of their hospital by senior doctors at Shatby itself. Throughout, the government remained silent, and the governor of Alexandria announced that he would not comment on the case. Finally, on 5 August, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif spoke up, announcing in an interview with Al-Gomhouriya that there were never any plans to pull down the hospital in the first place. But was his announcement enough to close the case? "In other countries, when officials redress public policy mistakes, they do so clearly. They explain and apologise for the problem created. Here, people are treated [by the government] as if they are either demented or crazy," exclaimed an exasperated Omar El- Sebakhi, head of AAHR. In this case, the government has claimed that Al-Wafd created a case, when none really existed. This position was spelled out by a Bibliotheca Alexandrina official who -- prior to Nazif's statements -- said the library was not interested in having the hospital removed, and that plans for hotels and other facilities required by the library would be put into effect on the Kuta Exhibition Grounds to the west of the Bibliotheca. Some accused Al-Wafd of using Shatby as a convenient campaign ploy to bolster the party's image in the lead up to next year's parliamentary elections. Al-Wafd, for its part, took offense at the latest turn of events. In a 6 August front page story announcing the end of the paper's "Save Shatby" campaign, the paper said that "due to [Nazif's] lack of experience in political life, the [prime minister] rushed with unenviable recklessness [into accusing Al- Wafd ]. We did not create this problem." The paper, the story insisted, "was not fighting windmills". The Shatby medical complex includes the Alexandria University Children's Hospital, built in the early 1970s, and the Shatby Maternity and Gynecology Educational Hospital built in the mid 1950s. The latter is a tertiary care centre that receives critical cases -- the only hospital of its kind serving the governorates of Alexandria, Beheira, Matrouh and Kafr Al-Sheikh. A part of the hospital was brought down in 2000, and replaced with the small garden that now separates the hospital and its neighbour, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Then, and now, arguments have been made that the hospital remains an eye-sore because of its proximity to the award-winning library. In fact, the original plans, approved in 1993, for the library grounds -- which can be found in the office of the Bibliotheca's consultant engineer Mostafa Mekki -- show a green space where the hospital is still standing. And while no written orders to pull the hospital down have surfaced, Presidential Decree No 166 issued in 2004 stipulated that the management of Al-Mowasah Public Hospital -- currently run by the Ministry of Health -- be transferred to Alexandria University, a move interpreted by those involved as paving the way for the emptying of Shatby, thus rendering the building unnecessary. Further, the 15 May edition of Al-Ahram reported that Moufid Shehab, higher education minister at the time, informed parliament's health and environment committee that engineering reports indicated that ground water underneath the hospital had resulted in permanent damage to the Shatby building. The minister said action would not be taken on the matter until alternative hospitals were made available. These statements would also seem to indicate that plans were being made for the hospital's demise. "We never said there was a written order to bring the hospital down," El-Sebakhi said. "We said there were verbal orders. And these kinds of orders are a dangerous thing in our country... orders that are made, but never written down. Then, when you want to hold someone accountable, they ask you for the proof." In any case, those who campaigned to save Shatby said that Nazif's statements were not conclusive. "While [Nazif's] statements are good, they are not enough," said Mohamed Abul-Ghar, Qasr Al-Aini Hospital obstetrics and gynecology professor. "Until the presidential decree that transfers Al-Mowasah Hospital to Alexandria University's management is revoked, the issue will remain unsolved," he said. Built in the late 1930s, the Health Ministry- run Al-Mowasah provides crucial care for cancer and kidney failure patients. It also services Alexandria's health insurance holders. "Unless the presidential decree is revoked," El-Sebakhi said, "the fate of Al-Mowasah, and all those it treats, remains in the balance. As does, in fact, the fate of Shatby." The court case raised by AAHR to this effect is scheduled for 16 October 2004.
