By Stanley Ugagbe
Doctors in Egypt have accused the country’s health ministry of negligence in its handling of Covid-19 and said it bears “full responsibility” for medics’ deaths.
In a statement made available to newsmen, a union said that 19 doctors had so far died from the disease and more than 350 others had been infected.
The union blamed a lack of personal protective equipment and beds for sickened staff, and warned the system could “collapse”.
But the health minister insisted sufficient protection had been offered and medics had received the “best possible care”.
According to the statement, the union said the deaths and infections among its members were the result of the health ministry “falling short” of doing its duty to protect them.
The statement reads: “The health ministry has an obligation towards doctors and all medics who are sacrificing their lives on the front lines to defend the safety of the homeland.”
“It is imperative to provide them with the necessary protection and rapid medical intervention for those who contract the disease,” it added.
Due to facts that the pandemic is showing no sign of abating and quarantine hospitals running at capacity, the union warned that “the health system could completely collapse, leading to a catastrophe affecting the entire country if the health ministry’s negligence and lack of action towards medical staff is not rectified”.
Reacting to the union’s statement, Health Minister Hala Zayed said that since the start of the outbreak, the ministry had “ensured the allocation of a floor in every quarantine hospital with a 20-bed capacity to treat those infected among medical staff”.
She added that staff were tested for the coronavirus upon entering and leaving hospitals, and there were “sufficient stocks” of personal protective equipment.
Also, the Health Ministry boss stated that 11 doctors had so far died, rather than 19.
Meanwhile the union’s warning came two days after the death of a 31-year-old doctor, Walid Yehia, who was unable to get a bed at an quarantine hospital in Cairo.
In a Facebook post, the deceased brother Ashraf Zalouk wrote: “His colleagues and I were with him, appealing for help, but there was zero response”.
