THE recent heated dispute in Parliament over State-financed medical treatment has highlighted the disastrous loopholes in the healthcare system in the country, say observers. This dispute, in which MPs and ministers are accused of abusing healthcare funds, all started when poor patients knocking at the door of the Specialised Medical Councils (SMCs), hoping for free medical treatment at home or abroad, were cruelly turned away. Devastated patients fighting for their lives in ICUs at Governmentrun hospitals, were warned by grimfaced doctors that their life-support machines would be turned off, unless their families paid up. Patients on the waiting list for vital surgery wereadvised to go home and die therepeacefully in the arms of their loved ones. Responding to the public outcry, Minister of Health, Dr. Hatem el- Gabali, has accused MPs of turning State-financed healthcare into a profit- making business. The Minister told the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Egyptian Parliament) that a number of MPs had extorted LE250 million from the State budget in the space of just three months, by making corrupt deals with expensiveprivate hospitals. The allegedly corrupt MPs are also accused of suspicious cooperationwith private clinics, which are not properly equipped to receive the beneficiaries of the free healthcare. According to the scam, the greater the number of poor patients being referred to private hospitals and clinics, the more money the suspected MPs made. It has been alleged that MPs submit the names of healthy people to the SMCs for free treatment in these expensive hospitals. Of course, these healthy people never show up for the treatment, and the money earmarked for this purpose by the Ministry of Health allegedly gets divided between the MPs and the owners of the hospitals. The suspected deputies deny the allegations. They claim that they are the victims of a campaign to tarnish their images, organised by their rivals in their constituencies ahead of the parliamentary elections later this year. Prompted by the appalling allegations, Parliamentary Speaker FathiSorour asked the Ministry of Interiorto investigate the scam. The Ministry has yet to revealed its findings. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the State-run watchdog the Central Agency for Auditing, Gawdat el- Malt, has decided to get his accountants and inspectors to investigate the scam too. Seriously ill patients have been told to hang on until the Government makes up its mind about its healthcare system. The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance have apparently come up with a new healthcare system, which will save the State budget much money.
