Ghada Sherif, head of medical statistics at the National Cancer Institute has filed a complaint with the General Prosecution, regarding the disappearance of several patients’ records, fearing that their disappearance could make patients prey to unlicensed medical experiments. In her complaint, she has questioned the integrity of an investigation panel formed by Cairo University last May to probe the missing files.
According to Sherif’s lawyer, Ali Taha, the list of missing records previously submitted by Sherif to investigators had been leaked to the NCI’s board. That, he argued, prompted the institute’s board to return part of the missing records secretly back into the facility.
A month following the Cairo University's probe, and with the files partially retrieved, the university decided instead to investigate the veracity of Sherif’s complaint.
Sherif said the panel formed by the university included her predecessor, under whose supervision the disappearance of the 2154 files allegedly occurred. That, she argued, questions the panel's neutrality.
She has also filed a report with the Central Auditing Organization, whereby the agency started the stocktaking of the NCI files on Wednesday.
Sherif had explained she fears the files could be used by pharmaceutical companies to reach out to patients and use them as guinea pigs in their experiments and research, in violation of the NCI’s rules which require prior permission.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
