The Administrative Court scheduled on Sunday the verdict for the government’s request to not pay infection compensation for doctors for 28 May.
Doctors receive monetary compensation for infections ranging between EGP 19 and EGP 30 monthly. The cabinet said it cannot increase the amount of the compensation due to financial burdens.
The court accepted a legal request in November 2015 submitted by the Doctors Syndicate to increase the allowance for infections contracted by doctors while on the job.
The syndicate filed a case in April 2014 against the then president, prime minister, and ministers of health and housing, demanding that the government increase the infection compensation to EGP 1,000. The Dentists and Pharmacists Syndicates also joined the case later.
The syndicate lawyer who filed the case previously told Daily News Egypt that, since late 2014, he has received 30 cases of doctors who have been affected by viruses in the course of their work, including one death. However, he argues that the numbers are far from reality, as many doctors choose not to reveal that they have contracted an infection.
The syndicate and the Health Ministry have been in major disagreement recently over numerous issues, including the health insurance bill. The conflict reached a peak with the assault of two doctors at Matariya Teaching Hospital, following which the syndicate held a general assembly in mid-February that resulted in a series of escalatory decisions against the ministry.
The Administrative Court adjourned the trial on Sunday to schedule a decision on the assembly decisions to 8 May. The decisions included the referral of Health Minister Ahmed Emad El-Din in his capacity as a member of the Doctors Syndicate, not as a minister. This prompted Emad El-Din to file a lawsuit against the legality of the assembly’s decisions at the outset.
