Will the brain drain in Egypt ever end?

Egyptian Medical Syndicate has released a document that shows there were 11,586 resignations of Egyptian physicians from government hospitals in the last 3 years which the document calls an “extraordinary brain drain”.

Also, in the report by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper which is domiciled in London, 50% of the 212,000 (that is 110,000) physicians in the country had bolted to other countries. This statement was credited to Hazem El-Gendy, an Egyptian MP. 

“In recent times particularly in the past 3 years, Egypt has seen an extraordinary exodus of healthcare personnel, which has sparked continuous caution, and apprehension of the possible impact it will have on the country’s health system and the quality-of-care patients will get,” he said. 

There are shocking data that suggests the country only has 8.6 physicians per 10,000 persons. However, the worldwide mean is 23 doctors per 10,000 persons. 

Reliable research including the one done by the World Bank in collaboration with LinkedIn showed that there has been a massive exodus of Egyptian professionals in various fields including information technology, artificial intelligence, programming, and scientific research. 

El-Gendy further explained that. “The cause of the mess exodus of physicians include low pay, the absence of job security and legal cover, as well as the quest for scientific studies opportunities.”

 The reason for the mass migration is numerous besides the ones mentioned here. The problem dates back to the 2011 revolution.