Disputes simmering for months now over a decision by the Ministry of Health to pull the plug from State-financed medical treatment have taken new dimensions. Many poor patients have been dragged out of their beds in State-owned hospitals and dumped in the street, shattering their chances of getting any more free medical treatment. On the one hand, MPs, who are campaigning to win the hearts of voters ahead of the general elections later this year, have decided to up the pressure on a reluctant government to do something to help these poor patients. These MPs are insisting that the Government should increase - not withdraw - its financial support for the free medical treatment system. If not, the sufferings of poor and middle-class people, who constitute the majority of voters, will only increase. On the other hand, the Ministry of Health protests that the traditional medical health system has been extensively abused by corrupt MPs, medical officials and the public. Defending his decision, the Minister of Health says that these suspects have illegally lined their pockets with hundreds of millions of Egyptian pounds they received for State-financed medical treatment for healthy persons or dead persons. It is alleged that private clinics have also been embroiled in this multi-million pound scam. In the meantime, more and more patients who cannot afford medical treatment are dying. Before ending this decades-long medical system, the Ministry of Health should have come up with another temporary scheme to allow poor patients to continue to receive free medical treatment, until the MPs and the Ministry of Health are reconciled.
