Egypt's doctors to strike in October

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Egypt's doctors to strike in October

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Egypt's doctors to strike in October
Members of the medical syndicate agreed to start a hospital strike, which will exclude emergency treatment and critical care, at a chaotic general assembly meeting
Friday 21 Sep 2012

On Friday, Egypt’s doctors agreed to hold an open strike, which will exclude emergency medical treatment and some other key areas, until their demands relating to pay and working conditions are met.

"For a doctor to treat patients, he must have fewer things to worry, or at least must worry less about having food to eat," Ahmed Khalifa, an ear, nose and throat doctor in Tanta told Ahram Online.

Khalifa has been practicing medicine for four years. He earns a fixed income of LE 345 per month, along with a bonus of 555, which is not regularly paid.

Thousands of Egyptian practitioners who work in the public sector earn less than a thousand Egyptian pounds a month. They frequently work in difficult conditions and in unsafe hospitals. Doctors have tried several ways of realising their demands for better salaries and working conditions, including hunger strikes, protests, and a one day strike, with little success.

On Friday, thousands of doctors attended a general assembly meeting of the medical syndicate in Cairo, where they agreed to hold a semi-open strike starting on 1 October. The committee that will organise this strike was also agreed upon.

However, it took at least 5 hours, some minor clashes, the departure of the head of the syndicate and some minutes of turning off the lights to agree on these decisions. The doctors are planning to include in the strike external clinics and non-urgent operations. Medical treatment related to emergency cases, renal dialysis and chronic disease will not be included.

The main demands of the striking doctors are a minimum wage for medical practitioners of LE 3,000 per month, the provision of security guards inside hospitals, and the raising of the portion of the state budget for healthcare to 15 per cent.

One controversial point discussed during the meeting was whether to punish those who do not take part in the strike. Some attendees argued that the right to protest is a human right and protesters should not be subject to any form of punishment, and the decision not to take part in this strike is a personal one and should also not receive punishment. The head of the medical syndicate, Khairy Abdel Dayem, was against punishing those not participating.

The crowd, however, seemed to disagree, with many arguing that submission to the general assembly’s decisions is a legal requirement. After many debates, Abdel Dayem announced the closure of the meeting and left the room. Accordingly, the debates increased and many attendees became agitated. The conference center administration tried to end the meeting, explaining that the reservation had been made in Abdel Dayem’s name, and he had left. The lights were also turned off for a couple of minutes.

In response, member of the medical syndicate high board Mona Mina, who is an activist and a member of pressure group ‘ Doctors without Rights’, intervened and said that the meeting would continue. The meeting was resumed, voting on the strike was repeated and then voting on the committee which will organise the strike took place.

Some members of the syndicate expressed their anger with the interruption of the meeting. "This shows his [Abdel Dayem’s] intention of ruining the general assembly meeting," Khalifa told Ahram Online.

Another point raised during the meeting was the fear that as most high-ranking members of the syndicate committee, who were elected in 2011, are members of the Muslim Brotherhood group, and Egypt's president belongs to the same group, "they are not willing to voice the opposition of the doctors, and will take the side of the ruling group," Mohamed Faisal, medical practitioner in Mansoura told Ahram Online.

One speaker at the meeting challenged the Brotherhood members to leave the syndicate alone. "You wanted power and politics; now you have it, leave the medical syndicate to us, to solve our problems." He was grabbed from the stage and pushed away by another member. At time of publication, dozens of members were still protesting outside the medical syndicate, waiting for the decisions taken during the irregular general assembly meeting to be authorised.

President Mohamed Morsi will meet on Saturday with different members of the syndicate to discuss their situation.


http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... tober.aspx


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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by Scottishtourist »

Disgrace!!
They're striking for minimum wage of 3000le per month!
That's a pittance!
I sincerely hope that they get a whole lot more.Let them come to UK (Scotland in particular!)We got "brain drain"going on here because they're unhappy with paying what they see as extortionate pension contributions!!
Totally forgetting that all NHS staff here are paying contributions according to their earnings.
Even admin staff earn more than some nurses.Is that fair?
Sincerely hope Revolution recognises the work and efforts of these professionals.
They shouldn't ever be in position of earning less that "tour guides!"
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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by DJKeefy »

Scottishtourist wrote:Disgrace!!
They're striking for minimum wage of 3000le per month!
That's a pittance!
I sincerely hope that they get a whole lot more.Let them come to UK (Scotland in particular!)We got "brain drain"going on here because they're unhappy with paying what they see as extortionate pension contributions!!
Totally forgetting that all NHS staff here are paying contributions according to their earnings.
Even admin staff earn more than some nurses.Is that fair?
Sincerely hope Revolution recognises the work and efforts of these professionals.
They shouldn't ever be in position of earning less that "tour guides!"
That's a good wage here ST, I usually use the 1:10 rule (similar to the exchange rate) most things here are up to 10 times cheaper than the UK, from petrol at 10p a litre to most Egyptian style food, potatoes 15p a kilo, foul from the steet (already made) 10p, pasta 15p, Egyptian rice from 30p a kilo etc etc of course some foods have gone up in price like sugar is now about 40p a kilo. Transport is cheap, 5p on a minibus.

So you could say that 3,000LE could be nearly the equivalent of 3,000 uk pounds a month in terms of what you can buy here to what you would pay in the UK.

I dont know where you get that tour guides earn more, they are normaly on 100LE a day (and tips if they get them) yet at the present situation here and the amount of tour guides available I doubt they work more than 2 to 3 times a week and that's not guaranteed like in a steady profession.

Mind you I suppose it's the same all over, I probably could earn a lot more than a doctor does in a day in the UK by DJing for 4 hours :)
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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by Scottishtourist »

Band 5 Admin staff on £27500 max here DJ Keefy...
And I've given tour guides tip of 50-100le!!!
Work out the Maths!
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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by DJKeefy »

I dont need to work out the maths, I live here and I also deal with tours, so I know the present situation, I know about 20 tour guides and most of these are lucky to earn 500LE a month at the moment. Yes before they were earning more :) Im not saying Doctors/Nurses should not get a wage rise, Im just saying that 3,000LE here is good money, it unlikely that they will get it though :(

The problem with Egypt at the moment is that every sector is going on strike for more money, yet there is no money to give them, Egypt is wanting to lend billions from different countries and the IMF cause they need money, so how are they going to be able to give wage rises to everyone who is going on strike, some wanting triple or more the present wage they are getting. its impossible.
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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by Horus »

Can't say I agree that our doctors are underpaid, the majority are on a good wage especially GP's who have had huge increases in pay and carry out even less work than before.
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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Am not sure what is making me say this this morning - maybe not enough coffee BUT Egyptian doctors are being paid what their economic market dictates. Egyptian doctors are obviously Egyptian. They are living and working in their country, in their economy. These doctors made a choice to become doctors and so is "money" their calling or is helping the sick their calling? If they want to make more money then maybe they need to switch vocations.

Last trip to Mexico I had a crown come off a tooth. I asked a waiter to tell me if there were any local dentists. He called another waiter who WAS a dentist!! I asked this man 'why' was he working in a resort and he said that even though he is a dentist (and does have an office with evening office hours) his fellow Mexican people cannot pay him enough for him to conduct a practice so he works days in tourism and several evenings a week as a dentist.

My point is that IF Egyptian doctors, as business men conducting a medical business are reliant on their patients to pay them for their services would they be able to continue as doctors? It seems that every trade and profession wants to look to the government to pay them a high wage. Seems to me that more and more people are looking to socialistic ways in their workplace re: wages. Everybody wants the gov't to pay them more.

Being the devils advocate tell me 'why' a doctor should be paid more than a bus driver? Is a doctor's 'job' more vital than that of other 'jobs?' Does a doctor actually 'serve' more people than a bus driver? AND why does the reward always have to be monetary? Why do we all venerate the 'healers' and see them as 'next to God' calling for them to get more money? We rarely do the same for other 'workers'.

Again - maybe it isn't enough morning coffee - but life isn't equal. Never has been. Isn't it 'pie in the sky thinking' to want everybody to be equal? Is that really realistic?

How much do those of us who work have to give to those who chose not to work? This is maybe not the case in Egypt but I do think their 'strikes' for higher wages are naive. There is NO MONEY in their country. It is up to Egyptians to look at themselves and at their country and figure out 'why' this is? AND they need to figure out what changes they, as a society, need to make to raise their own economy.
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Re: Egypt's doctors to strike in October

Post by Horus »

An excellent take on the subject and well thought out and not unlike my own views. As you have said, when it comes down to the actual job there are many people who work longer hours for their pay and are more proactive in our daily lives than our GP actually is. I suppose some of it goes back to our fear of being ill and the fact that we are more vulnerable in this state than when we are healthy and therefore more grateful when we are made well again. We have similar feelings towards the Car mechanic when we feared our car would never run again and our TV or Washer repair man when they go on the blink. I think that the medical profession in general do a good job, but I would say that generally speaking they are rewarded adequately for that and that’s as it should be, but it does seem at times as though they are given a higher status in society than many who work equally as long and are just as highly skilled within their own chosen field of work.
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