Why are medical staff in Egyptian hospitals facing repeated assaults?

“Weakness” of the health system, the absence of deterrent punishment, and the clout of some patients’ relatives are the main reasons for repeated assaults against medical staff members at hospitals in Egypt.

A state of anger has mounted in Egypt on social media and the medical field when video footage went viral on social media platforms on December 2, showing relatives of a female patient assaulting medical personnel at an educational hospital in Menoufia governorate. Many have raised their voices for the need to provide protection for all medical and nursing staffs across the country.

The video showed relatives of a patient were beating nurses and workers with a whip and dragging them on the ground at the Quesna Central Hospital in Menoufia. Five nurses and three female workers were injured with bruises and fractures, and another nurse who was pregnant had a miscarriage after being assaulted, according to a statement from the Egyptian Medical Syndicate on Saturday. The statement added that a relative of another patient was also injured in the attack, which is another crime added in “a black era” of Egypt’s medical history.

A screenshot of the video showing how the family was assaulting the nursing staff

Eye witnesses said that the female patient was suffering from bleeding, and when she was admitted to the emergency room at the hospital and her relatives found the doctor in the operation room, the relatives got nervous and assaulted the nursing staff verbally and psychically, Al Shorouk newspaper reported on Friday.

On social media, the hashtag for the name of the hospital in Arabic “#مستشفي_قويسنا_المركزي” trended, especially because one of the patient’s relatives who attacked the staff is a military officer. Social media users called for the Egyptian authorities to hold the military officer and his family accountable for the assault without using his military clout.

Also, one of the attacked nurses spoke to local media and said that the one of female relatives of the patient was threatening her by telling her, “You don’t know who we are. We can put you where the sun doesn't shine,” as an indication for misusing their power.

One of the attacked nurses telling what happened to her- a screenshot

As the incident circulated and turned into a public opinion case, both the General Prosecution and the Ministry of Health launched investigations into the incident. However, another video was leaked and published on social media showing the director of the hospital and the Undersecretary of the Directorate of Health in Menoufia held a meeting for the attacked medical personnel and eye-witnesses, telling them the hospital administration would not stand by them if they were harmed, as one of the attackers is a military officer.

Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of the Directorate of Health in Menoufia told the medical staff and the eye witnesses – as shown in the second video – that the family of the patient has asked for reconciliation and for withdrawing the police report filed by the attacked staff members against the family. She added that if staff rejected reconciliation, the family would use a police report it filed against the staff members accusing them of causing their patient to have a miscarriage.

The director of the hospital- a screenshot

Repeated attacks

Several assaults took place in hospitals nationwide over the past years. In August 2022, a doctor and three security personnel at Al-Nasr Hospital in Helwan, Southern Cairo, were stabbed with a knife by a young man who threatened them with a fierce dog. In the same month, a surgeon and a nurse were attacked by a patient’s relatives at Al-Qasr Al-Aini Educational Hospital in downtown Cairo.

In July 2022, medical and nursing staff at Gharbia Hospital in Egypt’s Delta were attacked by relatives of a child patient who was suffering from convulsions. His mother insulted and assaulted a female doctor in the emergency room. The mother was shouting at the doctor, who was checking another patient, Al Shorouk newspaper reported.

In addition to this, the Medical Syndicate mentioned other incidents that took place since 2016, including attacks that occurred in the Matareya Educational Hospital in January 2016, the Cardiology Institute in March 2019, and the National Bank Hospital in September 2022. 

However, the syndicate has no accurate number of attacks on medical staff nationwide, said Medical Syndicate Treasurer Mohamed Abdelhamid in comments to Jusoor Post. “No accurate statistics are available to us, because what is being reported is very little compared to what is happening on the ground,” he added.

He clarified that most of the reports end with “reconciliation” and away from the media spotlight, adding, “Even reports at the Ministry of Interior do not reflect the real number. It can be less than 50 percent.”

Doctors, nurses, and workers are being blamed for the weakness of the medical system, Abdelhamid said, adding that the shortage of medical staff and equipment is one of reasons that push relatives of patients to cause damage to hospitals if they find no doctor or medical supplies. 

Calls for tougher punishment

“We need to toughen the punishment for these attacks as it is applied in several countries like Gulf states and Europe, but unfortunately the incident could be reported to the police as a mere quarrel between the two parties and not a crime of assaulting medical staff or persons on duty,” Abdelhamid said, adding, “Attacking doctors or medical personnel also means that you deprived other patients of treatment or receiving care.”

He called for toughening the punishment or making the existing laws effective, adding that if the crime was legally described as an assault against an on-duty employee, there would be no problem, as the attacked employee would receive his legal right. However, he continued, what is done in most cases is describing the assault as a quarrel.

“Ninety percent of the cases are described as quarrels,” he said. In the Egyptian Penal Code, a quarrel is a misdemeanor, while attacking a public institution is a felony.

Abdelhamid stressed that the hospital administration should file a report to the police if any of its medical staff on duty was assaulted, noting that this does not happen, as the doctor or nurse make a report themselves.

The Medical Syndicate has called several times to amend the Penal Code to confront assaults on health facilities in light of the increasing cases of assault on members of medical staffs.

‘Not a military barrack’

In response to a question by Jusoor Post whether the hospital had no security personnel to protect the medical staff, Ministry of Health spokesperson Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar said the hospital has security personnel and five of them were injured during the incident.

Replying to another question about whether the incident requires reinforcing security forces at hospitals so that this kind of incident is not repeated, he said, “It is not a military barrack.”

However, Dr. Abdelhamid told Jusoor Post that there are not enough security personnel at hospitals to prevent these repeated incidents against physicians, nursing staff, and employees.

Abdel-Ghaffar said that to put an end to these attacks, the parliament must pass a controversial bill that was drafted by the government and rejected by the Medical Syndicate. “That is why we are asking for enacting the Law of Medical Responsibility,” he added in his comments to Jusoor Post.

The draft Law of Medical Responsibility, which has been submitted in the parliament by Health Affairs Committee head Ashraf Hatem, imposes imprisonment and fines against doctors for medical malpractice. However, the Medical Syndicate totally rejected the law, noting that this law could increase the phenomenon of an exodus of doctors.