Egypt’s doctors syndicate issued an official summon on Tuesday for Health Minister Ahmed Emad to be questioned by a disciplinary committee for “statements insulting all Egyptian doctors.”
In early February, the health ministry said in a press statement that 8,000 of the 9,000 Egyptian doctors who graduate yearly are “unqualified."
A syndicate general assembly on 12 February voted to refer the minister to the disciplinary committee, demanding that he be fired from the syndicate.
The doctors’ assembly, one of the largest to convene in recent years, also agreed on a number of scheduled escalatory measures, including nationwide-strikes to protest alleged police assaults on doctors.
The minister previously described these escalatory measures, which include providing free services to patients in public hospitals, as “inconsiderate to the state.”
The most well known of these incidents occurred on 28 January when policemen allegedly assaulted two doctors at Cairo’s Matariya Hospital after one doctor refused to fake a medical report for a policeman.
Nine low-ranking policemen have since been charged with “assaulting public officials” and “using violence” in the Matariya Hospital incident.
The policemen were released on bail pending trial shortly after their arrest.
