CAIRO — Enter the lounge in the Nile Hospital, take a seat on a ripped leather couch, brush away the cigarette smoke and listen to a litany of complaints on the cruel economics of healthcare from doctors whose salaries are as low as $63 a month and who live with their parents.
The travails of doctors mirror the larger shortcomings of a government struggling to provide medical care in a country where about 45% of the population lives in poverty. Physicians across the nation complain of long hours, shrinking respect for their profession, lack of medicine and broken equipment. One gynecologist said his public hospital is so broke that he buys his own rubber gloves rather than wearing ones that have been washed for reuse.
"You get 10 extra pounds [about $1.80] if you work a 24-hour shift," said Mohammed Farahat, an orthopedic specialist. "But to buy your dinner during that shift costs you 15 pounds. So you're thinking, what good does it do?"
Egypt's doctors have been protesting for weeks and have set a March deadline for a nationwide strike. Their battle is the latest ripple of labor unrest that in recent months has sparked demonstrations by textile workers, university professors, pharmacists, train conductors and real estate tax collectors. High inflation, flat wages and anger at the government of President Hosni Mubarak are increasingly agitating both the educated and working classes in a moderate Arab state that is one of America's closest Middle East allies.
The Doctors Union is demanding an immediate minimum monthly salary of 1,000 pounds or about $180 for the 93,000 physicians working directly for the state. No salary at the Nile Hospital in northwest Cairo exceeds that, including the pay for surgeons, Farahat said.
The starting monthly pay for doctors can be as low as $23. The Egyptian Health Ministry said that it would gradually increase pay based on performance, but that its budget, like those of many government agencies, is too strapped to meet the union's demands.
"We sympathize with doctors," said Abdel Rahman Shahin, a ministry spokesman. "The state should finance [higher pay], but the state has a lot of obligations." He added that with phased-in performance bonuses "at least there is some change doctors will feel" by the end of the year.
