6 April spurned by Ministry of Health

Basil El-Dabh
3 Min Read
The 6 April group have been supporting the Doctor's strike demanding more state resources go into the health system. (PHOTO BY HEND TAREK)
The 6 April group have been supporting the Doctor's strike demanding more state resources go into the health system. (PHOTO BY HEND TAREK)
The 6 April group have been supporting the doctor’s strike demanding more state resources go into the health system. (PHOTO BY HEND TAREK)

The 6 April Youth Movement have claimed the Minister of Health Mohamed Ahmed Mostafa has rebuffed the group’s attempts to meet with him, while Mostafa’s office has denied being contacted by 6 April members.

Mohamed Adel, a leader of 6 April, said his group have made repeated efforts over the past week to take up the health issues in the areas of Nahya in Giza and Sharabia in Cairo.

“The people need central hospitals built in these areas and we need the ministry to approve plans to build them,” said Adel. He indicated there were small health centres in both neighbourhoods, but they were not nearly enough to cope with the health issues in the poor areas of Cairo and Giza.

The 6 April member pointed to Mostafa’s work with the old regime and alleged track record of corruption as reasons for his avoidance of the revolutionary youth group.

In a statement on the movement’s website, Amr Said of the 6 April political bureau warned that the large gap in health sector coverage was an example of Prime Minister Hesham Qandil ignoring problems of citizens, and that a further pattern will lead to “inevitable disaster if there was no direct intervention to resolve the crisis and immediate demands.”

The 6 April Youth Movement insisted that residents had collected more than 5,000 signatures and donated enough money for the construction of a new hospital and were only lacking ministerial approval to start construction.

Both Adel and Said accused the Minister of Health for being complicit in the handling of the crisis at Ismailia’s general hospital, where the hospital director allegedly transferred government money from hid governorate and commited other corrupt practices in the running of the hospital.

The office of the Minister of Health on Sunday denied being recently contacted by the 6 April Youth Movement.

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