When a hospital in Britain offered Mohamed a new job in 2020, he didn’t have to think twice: The proposed salary was 40 times higher than what he was making at home.
Young doctors are leaving Egypt in droves for better jobs abroad
Like other young doctors in Egypt, 34-year-old Mohamed had spent years in school and specialized training, only to be placed in a government hospital where he earned around $300 a month — barely enough to scrape by.
Mohamed spoke to The Washington Post on the condition that he be identified only by his first name, fearing government reprisals for criticizing the medical system.
By moving to the U.K, he joined more than 11,500 doctors who left Egypt’s public health sector between 2019 and 2022, according to the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, many of them seeking better prospects abroad. Last year, more than 4,300 government-employed Egyptian doctors submitted their resignations, an average of 13.5 per working day.