Egypt’s Doctors’ Syndicate has notified the Interior Ministry of protests scheduled to be held in all hospitals across the country on Saturday, state-owned Al-Ahram reported.
The notification requested that the ministry carry out the “necessary procedures” to secure the demonstrations, which was decided upon during an emergency general assembly meeting held last Friday in response to assaults on doctors and the controversial new health insurance law.
Thousands of doctors who work in different branches of medicine took to the streets to chant against the violence, with some tying stethoscopes around their hands to express increasing anger towards the state’s reluctance to handle the attacks on the Matareya Teaching Hospital earlier last month.
Nine policemen attacked doctors Mohamed Abdelaziz and Ahmed El Sayed for refusing to falsify a policeman’s medical report. The policemen were held on charges for violence but later were released on bail.
Following the demonstrations, the Doctors’ Syndicate announced its rejection of the privatization of healthcare, in addition to new procedures that will see any hospital shut down immediately in the event of “assault from any thugs”. The Syndicate announced that all doctors in the country will go on partial strike if their demands are not met within two weeks.
Thus far, the syndicates for Egyptian lawyers, pharmacists, actors and engineers have each expressed their solidarity with the Doctors’ Syndicate.
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