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With rising inflation, local MDs are lured abroad
To go or not to go: that is the question that many Egyptians in
the medical profession ask themselves at one point in their careers.
The decision of many, for whatever reason, to seek work abroad –
usually in North America or Europe – has led some observers
to worry that such a “brain drain” could leave the country
bereft of competent doctors, while simultaneously wiping out national
investment in medical education.
According to the latest UNDP Human Development Report, between
1998 and 2000 some 15,000 doctors left the Arab world in search
of greener pastures. A 2001 study conducted by the London-based
Gulf Center for Strategic Studies, meanwhile, went so far as to
warn that the Arab world would soon suffer the loss of all its medical
experts if the drain maintained its current rate.
For the most part, the motivation to leave is financial, with many
Egyptian doctors (like most citizens), ailing from the battered
purchasing power that came in the wake of currency devaluation –
while salaries remain constant.
According to Ahmed El-Minawi, professor of obstetrics and gynecology
at Cairo University, who has practiced medicine in both the US and
Egypt, the differential between what a doctor makes in Egypt and
what he or she can make abroad – particularly in the US –
is often to vast to resist. “Veteran university professors
in the medical field in the US make an average of $150,000 a year,
while in Egypt they make only $300 a month, or $3,600 a year,”
he noted.
Anesthesiologist Maged Andrews, for one, after working in the
local medical field for nine years, finally decided to go to the
US when the opportunity arose, after seeing little financial reward
after seven years of medical school. “In return for going through
all of these years of education, the increase in salary was only
a £E 10-15 raise per year,” he said.
Currently, Andrews is studying for a medical board examination
– a requirement to get a medical license in the US – while
proceeding with his application for a US green card. “At the
beginning, I wanted to go abroad – to the US or Europe –
to train, and then come back,” he said. “But now, after
the devaluation of the Egyptian pound, and with salaries not increasing,
I’ve changed my mind.”
Cultural considerations have also led some Egyptian doctors to hunt
for opportunities overseas.
Thirty-year-old female doctor Doaa Rammah, who works at a Cairo
public hospital, believes that, in the West, the prospects for upward
mobility are better – particularly for women. “In Egypt,
I sense discrimination,” Rammah said. “I think abroad,
anyone with good qualifications, and anyone who makes an effort,
will be promoted.”
According to El-Minawi, still another factor encouraging the exodus
is the general lack of modern research facilities available to doctors
in Egypt, in contrast to the abundance of cutting-edge medical technology
in the West – a consideration that consistently puts North
America and Europe at the top of the list of countries targeted
by doctors from developing nations.
An official from the US embassy confirmed that there was a constant
flow of Egyptian doctors to and from the US, many of whom were medical
students sent by the health ministry to train at American universities
for four to five years. “The whole point of traveling is to
go to the US, learn what you need to learn and bring it back here,”
he said, adding that there were no official estimates of how many
Egyptian doctors emigrated each year.
Attempts to contact the Egyptian health ministry for comment,
meanwhile, were unsuccessful.
On the national level, the phenomenon represents an enormous strain
on the economy, as state investment in medical education almost
literally flies out the window. According to a recent study, the
Arab world loses an annual total of $1.5 billion this way. “The
country is spending so much money on educating and training doctors,
but when those doctors don’t get financial incentives, they
think of leaving,” Andrews said. “For the government,
this means a loss of investment. It means you are losing your best
doctors.”
El-Minawi, reflecting on the experiences of his students at Cairo
University, concedes that a large number are currently seeking work
opportunities abroad. “I advise them to look for training abroad,”
he said. “But I also tell them that, in the end, they have
to come back, because their future lies here – not in some
little town in England or in the deserts of Arabia.”
Ola Galal Submit
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