Following a decision made by the Doctors Syndicate assembly mid-February to provide free of charge medical treatment, The Ministry of Health denied in an official statement Saturday claims of implementing this decision in any public hospital.
The ministry also accused the assembly of violating the constitution Article 38, which states that any change in public services fees are conducted within a legal framework. “The small fees required in public hospitals are allocated for expenditures in the state budget,” ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed said in the statement.
Earlier Saturday, a syndicate representative in Sohag urged the patients not to pay the fees during an inspection visit to the city’s hospitals.
In a historic gathering, thousands of doctors across Egypt voted on a set of bold and confrontational decisions against the government. The assembly was triggered by an attack against two doctors working for Matariya hospital in late January.
The first decision on their list demanded providing free of charge healthcare for citizens at public hospitals. The syndicate secretary general, Mona Mina, said this decision was initiated to debunk purported claims against doctors that they are reluctant to provide adequate healthcare for underprivileged citizens.
In response, Minister of Health Ahmed Emad Eddin sent a warning to hospitals on Friday that implementing such a decision exposes the personnel to investigation risks since they refuse to enforce the law in this regard.
