Posts circulating on social media in Egypt regarding the cancellation of the government secondment of medical school graduates have sparked wide controversy over the past hours, amid questions about the truth of this.
The controversy came after the notification issued by the Physiotherapy Syndicate, to warn high school students before joining medical schools, which include "human doctors, dentists, physical therapy, pharmacy and nursing", stressing that the Egyptian Ministry of Health decided that secondment of graduates "is no longer mandatory, but according to the needs of the labor market".
The secondment of medical school graduates in Egypt means their appointment in government hospitals and medical centers immediately after their graduation and completion of the "internship year".
For more than 50 years, Egyptian law has granted the Ministry of Health the right to second medical school graduates to work in government hospitals, or their affiliated units, for a period of two years, with the possibility of renewing the secondment for other periods.
In this regard, the head of the Egyptian Doctors Syndicate, Osama Abdel-Hay, revealed that the Supreme Committee for Secondment at the Ministry of Health decided in 2022 that the secondment of medical school graduates would be "according to needs", i.e. the shortage in hospitals and health units, starting in 2025.
The head of the Doctors Syndicate said that "this does not apply to human doctors, as there is a shortage in the required numbers of doctors to work in the government sector, whether in Ministry of Health hospitals or university hospitals, or those affiliated with various official bodies, and therefore the secondment of doctors continues in its current form."
He pointed out that the "secondment" crisis appears more in the "pharmacists, dentists and physiotherapists" syndicates, especially after the number of colleges for these specializations increased over the country's needs.
According to a government study conducted on Egypt's needs for human doctors until 2025, the rate of doctors in Egypt is 8.6 doctors per 10,000 citizens, while the global rate is 23 doctors per 10,000 citizens.
Abdel-Hay added: "This means that there is a significant shortage in the number of doctors, and therefore the need for assignment still exists."
At that time, the government study recommended the need to work on increasing the number of students accepted into the faculties of human medicine in public and private universities to more than 10,000 students annually, in a manner that does not conflict with the capabilities of colleges and university hospitals in providing a good level of medical education.
Nursing.. and the shortage of numbers
This applies to the number of nursing workers in Egypt, as the head of the Nursing Syndicate, Kawthar Mahmoud, confirmed that "there is no alternative to assigning nursing."
She explained that the nursing deficit is currently estimated at about 75,000 male and female nurses in the governorates of the republic, while it is expected to double by 2030 in conjunction with the implementation of the comprehensive health insurance system in all governorates, stressing at the same time that the Ministry of Health's decision to assign according to health needs does not mean canceling the assignment of nursing graduates.
For his part, Secretary-General of Physical Therapy Sami Saad told Sky News Arabia that "assignment is no longer mandatory for everyone, and has become according to the capacity of hospitals, whether affiliated with the Ministry of Health, university hospitals, or military hospitals."
He pointed out that this change in the assignment of graduates came based on an agreement between the Egyptian Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar with the medical unions and the Health Committee in the House of Representatives after the increase in the number of graduates of some medical colleges without there being vacant places to assign them to work, adding: "There is a shortage in the number of human doctors and nurses, and this allows the freedom to assign a larger number according to the needs of the labor market, unlike the reality in the number of pharmacists, for example."
Saad explained that a large number of doctors travel to work abroad, whether in Arab or foreign countries, and therefore the Ministry of Health is forced to assign all doctors to fill the deficit in hospitals, but on the other hand, the number of colleges has increased significantly recently, in a way that does not conform to international standards, which has contributed to a significant increase in the number of graduates, warning of "real unemployment" within 5 years from now.
An informed source in the Egyptian Ministry of Health said that the decision to assign doctors came after the decision to assign doctors from outside Egypt.
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