CAIRO: The emergency room of the Mattareya Hospital remained closed for the fourth day Thursday, turning away patients amid fears of attacks after one patient was killed last Monday.
A dozen armed thugs broke into the hospital Wednesday, breaking its gates and demanding that a man injured from a gunshot receive treatment despite security personnel’s efforts to convince them that the emergency room was closed.
Attacks on hospitals have been reported over the past two weeks and many had to close down their emergency rooms due to lack of security.
Fights between families of patients, many of them armed with knives and guns, occur on priority over treatment.
"On Monday morning we received a dead body from a gunshot and the killer was wounded. Hundreds of the victim’s family members surrounded the hospital and wanted to attack the injured killer," said Mohsen Khalifa, security supervisor at Mattareya Hospital.
"The police and military forces were few in numbers to interfere and eventually left. The victim’s family broke into the hospital attacked the injured person with knives and killed him," he added.
Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital opened its emergency room Wednesday after staying closed for one week due to repeated attacks.
"I saw three patients who were fighting outside the hospital and continued their fight inside with knives. Another patient verbally abused me refusing to go through a routine check up," said Haitham Abd Al-A’al, a doctor at the emergency room.
"The police told us that they are securing the building and aren’t allowed to interfere inside the hospital so we decided to close the emergency room until adequate security is present," he added.
Minister of Health Ashraf Hatem announced Wednesday that the military police will be responsible for securing medical facilities around the country.
On Thursday, military police was seen frequently checking the hospital and security personnel armed with truncheons were spread around its entrance.
"During the past few days there have been constant meetings between officials from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior and the Armed Forces in which they discussed the necessity of securing hospitals and other medical facilities, particularly
emergency rooms and receptions, especially after the recent attacks," said Abdel Hamid Abaza, deputy minister of health for political and technical affairs.
Abaza added that they agreed that the military police will be the responsible body in securing the facilities.
"This is a good step, but we need effective security not one that doesn’t interfere as we saw," said Mona Mina, spokesperson of Doctors Without Rights movement.
"Everything triggers violence; patients are attacking doctors to force them to treat them and this is unacceptable," she added.
Khalifa said that this was never common before the revolution.
"We used to receive normal cases but now we receive people injured from gunshots and knives due to the violence on the streets," he said.
The Armed Forces have received a list of all the medical facilities around the country and have devised a plan in order to secure them in coordination with the police, according to the health ministry.
Abaza pointed out that there is constant communication and coordination between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior and the armed forces throughout the day in order to ensure that everything is under control. –Additional reporting by Safaa Abdoun.
