The Egyptian Medical Syndicate filed an official complaint on Wednesday with the prime minister and the health and local development ministers against Qena Governor Major General Mostafa El-Beblawy, after he publicly berated and dismissed the director of Qena General Hospital.
The complaint followed a video posted on the Qena governorate’s official Facebook page on Tuesday which showed El-Beblawy visiting the public hospital, where he criticized the shortage of doctors and the failure to keep some clinics clean.
He also received numerous complaints from patients and their families about being required to buy medicines and medical supplies outside the hospital and having relatives’ operations postponed.
Following the visit and what the governorate described as “deteriorating health conditions at the hospital,” it announced El-Beblawy’s decision to dismiss the hospital director and appoint an acting replacement, rather than instructing him to stop requiring patients to buy supplies outside the hospital.
The governor also ordered the hospital’s administrative affairs director transferred to Abu Tesht district and referred its administrative records officer for investigation.
In response to the decisions and the governor’s treatment of the hospital director in the video, the syndicate said in a statement that it “completely rejected the public berating to which the director of Qena General Hospital was subjected during the governor’s field visit and the subsequent decision to dismiss him.”
“Publicly berating a hospital director and holding him responsible for the healthcare system’s crises will not provide a single missing syringe or fill the hospital’s storage rooms with supplies and medicines,” the syndicate said, noting that the hospital director had no authority to set the health budget or secure the funding required for replacement and renovation projects, and that holding him alone responsible for the shortfall amounted to “an unfair, reductionist view of long-standing problems.”
A graphic attached by the syndicate to the statement includes remarks by the Minister of HealthThe syndicate attached a graphic featuring previous remarks by Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar: “I need one trillion Egyptian pounds (about $19 billion) every year. Then hold me accountable for delays in hospital medical services.”
The graphic made an implied reference, absent from the written statement, to inadequate government funding for healthcare services and the resulting shortage of medical supplies at public health units and hospitals.
Nevertheless, the syndicate expressed its full support for citizens’ right to receive dignified medical care without bearing the cost of buying supplies outside hospitals.
It stressed, however, that guaranteeing this right required an effective and reliable supply system and adequate budgets, matters that exceeded the hospital director’s authority.
The syndicate called for an investigation, saying accountability must follow legal, administrative and governance frameworks, “not serve as a photo opportunity or media spectacle.” It also criticized the governor for filming inside a medical facility, in clear violation of Health Ministry regulations governing such conduct.
The Qena governor has a military and academic background in structural engineering and project management. He graduated from the Military Technical College in 1990 and later held senior Armed Forces posts, including assistant head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority for national and higher education projects, director of the authority’s Licensing, Inspection and Follow-up Department, and assistant director of the Military Technical College for educational affairs.
In a related development, the syndicate filed an official complaint with the Senate speaker over a senator representing Kafr El-Sheikh governorate filming inside Borg El-Burullus Hospital in breach of established rules and regulations. It described the incident as “a clear violation of the privacy of patients and medical staff.”
The syndicate said such practices risked turning hospitals into “stages for media spectacle” instead of preserving their sanctity as places providing medical care. It stressed that rules governing oversight and monitoring within state institutions were clear and specific, and that any shortcomings should be reported and assessed through official administrative channels, away from spectacle and self-promotion.
The syndicate called for urgent legislative and executive measures to address the root causes of the structural crises facing hospitals, chiefly by increasing the health sector’s budget, supporting human resources and improving working conditions for medical staff facing immense pressure with limited resources.
