Egyptian doctors raise concerns over bill to lease government hospitals

The head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, Osama Abdel-Hay warned that the draft law submitted by the government on leasing hospitals will harm citizens with limited incomes.

RT reported on Saturday that Abdel-Hay addressed the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chairman of the Health Committee at the house, Ashraf Hatem, regarding the draft law.

The government submitted the bill under the title “Regulating the Granting of Commitment to Public Facilities to Establish, Operate, and Develop Health Facilities,” he said, which is scheduled to be discussed in the plenary session of the House of Representatives on Sunday.

Abdel-Hay expressed the Medical Syndicate’s welcome to encourage the private sector to participate in providing health services.

“The union has repeatedly called for overcoming obstacles and providing facilities to Egyptian and foreign investors towards establishing new private hospitals to add to the health service, and not to rent existing government hospitals that provide their services to the simple Egyptian citizen, especially those with limited income,” he stated.

The medical syndicate’s objections

The head of the Medical Syndicate raised several objections to the draft law submitted by the government.

Abdel-Hay explained, “This is harmful to Egyptian citizens with limited income, while the main goal of the investor remains profit, which the government has removed restrictions in the draft law to provide health services to the citizen without a maximum price limit.”

“The government law threatens the stability of 75 percent of workers in health facilities that the government intends to rent, as the law allows the investor to dispense with them and to re-employ these workers, including doctors, nurses, and administrators, with the knowledge of the Ministry of Health in other places,” he explained.

Abdel-Hay explained that, “There are no guarantees in the government’s draft law for the investor’s commitment to the specified percentage for treating health insurance patients and at state expense.”

“The Medical Syndicate, based on its professional obligations and national duty, had to draw attention to the shortcomings of the aforementioned draft law, which would threaten the safety and health of the Egyptian citizen and the stability of the health system,” he stressed.