Egypt denies replacing local nurses with foreigners

Egypt’s health ministry yesterday denied reports that the ministry intends “to replace Egyptian nurses with foreign ones as part of a new comprehensive health insurance system.”

“The goal of recruiting foreign nurses is to raise the efficiency of the Egyptian ones and train them to ensure they meet international quality standards,” the ministry explained, stressing that the rumours were “groundless” and aimed at “stirring anger among Egyptian nurses.”

The Egyptian cabinet, the ministry pointed out, had ordered its media office “to monitor all the recently-circulated news on the social media networks to clarify the facts on the topic.”

“The ministry organises a number of training programmes for the rehabilitation of medical staff in hospitals and health centres, in preparation for the implementation of the new comprehensive public health insurance system,” the health ministry noted, adding that the new system would see a rise in the wages of doctors and nurses.

Reports circulating on social media said “the Egyptian health ministry was planning to sack all Egyptian nurses across the country’s national hospitals and bring in foreign ones as a replacement.”

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