CAIRO: Board members of the Doctor's Syndicate and affiliate syndicates nationwide, led by MP Hamdy El-Sayyed, threatened to resign in protest of the government's "procrastination in paying the second phase of raises, they announced in a press statement. Fifty-sixty percent of doctors are expected to be covered in the second phase of payment. The syndicate also called for an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to discuss the Ministry of Finance's delay in implementing the government's promised incentives plan. They also want to discuss equalizing university resident doctors with their counterparts at the Ministry of Health with the Minister of Higher Education. Last year, the government announced a three-year reform package to improve doctors' pay and work conditions. "We have agreed with the government that doctors' pay and conditions have to improve over the course of three years. The first year has nearly come to an end, and there are still some junior doctors whose problems haven't been resolved, said El-Sayyed. Last April, the Doctors' Syndicate protested against doctors' low salaries. At the time, El-Sayyed had said there were rumors that the government won't pay the second phase because of economic conditions. "We say that while difficult economic conditions do exist, doctors also suffer from extremely poor economic conditions, and we are demanding that doctors form part of the economic reform being undertaken by the state. "The third year of the reform package encompasses others working in the health sector such as nurses, chemists and dentists, he said.
