CAIRO: A war of words is brewing between Egypt's ministry of health and doctors who entered a strike on Monday to push for an increase in state salaries. The ministry's Assistant Minister of Health Mostafa Ibrahim argued at a press conference that the strike only saw around 10 to 15 percent of medical professionals go on strike at public facilities. In his comments, he praised doctors who refused to participate in the action, “and who chose the good of patients and the country over their own. “This strike is negatively affecting the poor patients who come to public hospitals in search for free treatments,” added Ibrahim. But Mona Mina of the doctors' rights group Doctors Without Rights said at a press conference on Monday that more than 90 percent of non-emergency doctors across the country had joined the strike. She also revealed that some doctors had been threatened by their bosses to remain at work and not participate in the general strike. “We will not turn anyone away, but we won't be doing consultations unless it is an emergency," said doctor Nawal, who was also manning the front desk at a Garden City clinic as they had sent their staff home while the strike takes place. “Our services will not be cut to those in need, so patients with emergencies will be seen," she told Bikyamasr.com. In protest of the deteriorating state of healthcare in Egypt, doctors announced a partial strike at the emergency general committee for the Doctors' Syndicate on Friday. Hundreds of medical professionals attended the assembly meeting on September 21. The decision has been taken to go into a partial strike starting October 1, but it will exclude emergency rooms, nurseries and intensive care. The strike will be open-ended and will only include governmental hospitals across the country. Penalties will be enforced on doctors who do not follow the strike. The Doctors' Syndicate issued a statement refusing the last terms, saying it violates the regulations of the syndicate, in specific articles 51, 84, and 85 that states that disciplinary measures are not taken without an investigation. President Mohamed Morsi met on Saturday with doctors' representatives to discuss the strike and asked them to not go forward with it, promising to pump in millions of pounds to support doctors and hospitals at the beginning of the new fiscal year, asserting his approval to raise wages and benefits' packages. However, doctors were not pleased with the statements and said it was only an initial agreement. “Unfortunately what has happened is a ‘preliminary approval' to the demands and to raising the health budget, the fact is that officials always agreed in principle to our demands ... But these approvals are not put into practical steps that would prevent the conditions of doctors and hospitals of regressing from bad to worse ... until our hospitals become ruins," wrote Mina on the January 25 Youth Doctors Facebook page. “The October first strike will not be suspended until our demands are met," she wrote. Egyptian doctors are in uproar over the lack of security in hospitals as many were attacked by thugs since the revolution in 2011. Many doctors were assaulted and parts of these hospitals vandalized. Doctors demand a more secure atmosphere for them and for their patients in parallel to developing the service of the public medical sector in the country. ** Joseph Mayton contributed to this report.
