The committee responsible for organizing a renewed strike for non-emergency doctors, which began today, announced that 90 percent participated in hospitals nationwide.
The Doctors Syndicate committee had organized a strike last week, threatening to continue today if their demands were not met.
In a statement released today, it announced that some doctors who participated had been attacked and threatened.
The doctors' main demands include overhauling the existing healthcare system – which they call corrupt and inefficient – as well as sacking interim Health Minister Ashraf Hatem, impeaching Doctors Syndicate President Hamdi al-Sayyed and increasing the health allocation of the national budget from 3.5 to 15 percent.
The committee said the strike will continue in outpatient clinics for three days from 9 am to 2 pm. Meanwhile, work will continue in emergency rooms, intensive care wards, delivery rooms, kidney dialysis wards and hospital receptions.
Dr. Muhammad Shafiq, a committee member, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Ministry of Health was pressuring doctors to end the strike.
He said the ministry was “sending untrue faxes in which it claims it responded to the demands, and that it has forced hospital administrations to work.”
The committee said a large number of hospitals in the governorates of Sohag, Daqahlia, Port Said, Monufiya, Suez, Sharqiya, Qalyubiya and Alexandria participated in the strike.
Sixty percent of doctors in Cairo participated, the committee said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
