Doctor Salaries in Egypt
For a country like Egypt, which immediately brings up visions of pyramids that have been famous since ancient times, I don't need to put up a map of it's location - and if any of you fellas have no clue where Egypt is on the face of Earth, then you need to be playing the popular Traveler IQ Challenge game or seriously consider getting yourself a Table-Top Globe
. ;)In Egypt, the health system has both public and private components - the public health system component has been largely languishing under poor funding and low wages. Even though liberal economic polices has seen Egypt doing pretty well economically as a nation, the wealth distribution is vastly inequitable with the upper crust retaining most of it and leaving about 45% of the population at the poverty rungs of the money ladder- and the doctors, especially in the salaried public sector, are not well to do either.
The Egyptian currency is called the Egyptian Pound and as per March 2008 rates, 1 US Dollar = 5.48 Egyptian Pound
As per this news article, while a prosecutor makes about 2000 Egyptian Pounds a month (US $ 367 by Mar 2008 Rates) while a doctors starting salary can be as low as $23 a month, averaging around US $ 60-70 a month . Numerous other excerpts from this excellent investigative article gives us more figures:
- "You get 10 extra pounds [about $1.80] if you work a 24-hour shift -But to buy your dinner during that shift costs you 15 pounds"
- "Ahmed Sobhi, an internist at Nile Hospital who earns less than $65 a month"
- Many docs are forced to do Moonlighting for 24-hour sleepless shifts earn an extra $90 a month or so.
Another news article that covers the recent March 2008 doctor's strike over pitiable wages says:
"The trainee doctor is paid 230 pounds while the specialist is paid 500 pounds after 20 years" - i.e US $ 42 for trainee docs and only US $91 for docs with 20 years of experience.
Little wonder then that Egypt is a exporter of doctors to neighboring countries and to the developed nations, seeking better lifestyles and money.
I invite Egyptian doc readers to contribute more figures, insights and corrections - do drop me a comment below :-)
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posted by Digitaldoc, MD at 3:01 AM
Comments on "Doctor Salaries in Egypt"
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aly said ... (3/04/2008) :
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Anonymous said ... (3/05/2008) :
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Louise said ... (3/05/2008) :
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Digitaldoc, MD said ... (3/18/2008) :
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aly said ... (4/25/2008) :
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aly said ... (5/13/2008) :
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Digitaldoc, MD said ... (5/23/2009) :
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Anonymous said ... (7/07/2009) :
Post Your Comment !HI, i am a radio diagnosis resident at kasr el ainy hospital the best government and educational hospital in Egypt and may be in the whole middle east region as the people in charge like to advertise for it and i am paid 230 Egyptian pound/month and of course i am doing the USMLE now and i will be traveling to the us for better lifestyle and money.
this data is somehow incorrect !!!
i am houseofficer in siwa general hospital & i am making around 2500 egyptian pound
please don't compare salaries in egypt to anywhere , since things & needs in egypt are much cheaper than anywhere else in the world , forexample funature is one of the best industries we have , or food , vegetables & and other stuff are cjeaper than many countries. Also gas & fuels ,bread , rents......
so if u rally wanna compare salaries , u also have to be fair , compare prices also !!!
right ?!!
i'd like to note that egyptian are not welcome by USA , highest refusal rates & visa rejection is at the american embassy in cairo !!
so i'd recommend the canadian pathway for arabs & egyptian in particular :)
Hey! Glad you like our game. You can chat about strategy and compare scores with other Traveler IQ addicts in our travel forums
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manage
Hi Guys, (or shall I say Docs ?)
I'm an old fan of this blog, and after reading this article about Egypt, I decided i would post a comment, since I'm Egyptian!
Doc Salaries in Egypt are low, (we speak of sallaries, not private clinic incomes of course, which by the way, widely vary, from really crappy clinics that actually lose money, to clinics that make Millions !!)
Average salaried are from $30 to $100 PER MONTH ! According to th american way of putting it, That's $360 to $1200 a YEAR !
Well, yes, to live in Egypt is much cheaper than Here in the US, but still, $30 is a low figure ! So you can't pay a rent, buy a car, get married, nothing ! You can only eat put gas in a car (that is provided to you) and hang out with yor friends. But really live with $30-$100...Extremely Difficult. that is why Moonlighting is A MUST. And only with that option, you can start living a decent life.
Thanks for all the enlightening inputs guys :-)
Thank you all for contributing!
But the story has another side. These aforementioned salaries are from government jobs, which is considered the safety net by Egyptian standards (pension, insurance..etc). In reality, almost all doctors have also their own clinics from which they make the bulk of their actual income. Most doctors (and Egyptians in general) live in their parents house until marriage which usually around age 28-30, by then the young doc would've finished residency or specialty Master's degree during which time the financial burden is mostly on the parents. Life then starts after 30 !!..a doc will have a job in the morning (few hours in a public hospital) then he/she heads to his own clinic for couple hours followed by an evening shift in the clinic (4-5 hours). Average doctors in small towns make an average of $1,000 (one thousand) dollars a month (12k per year) this way. Of course some make much less and some make much more. Thank you!
hi, i am aly again, i just would like us egyptian doctors to stop denial of the crap life that we are living, no one can imagine that the 21 first on the class of kasr el ainy hospital which means one of the best minds in egyptian medicine with a 99 score in usmle step 1 to get paid 40$/ month and is expected to stay in egypt.
and i think talking about cheap living is no longer valid , we had like a 100% increase in all foods over few month , who can even imagine this increase and no one is doing any about it.
as long as we deny we will never be better so i rather not stay in egypt rather than live in denial.
First, thats a really nice website and interresting blog.
First still :), i enjoyed reading all the comments, of my egyptian co-suffering doctors ( sorry to say ), but if i may elaborate, theses Doc-conditions are not independent from the general conditions in Egypt, what we all can sense; its becoming a life style indeed; the failure to ORGANIZE the most critical services by the GOV, including, but not exclusively the medical service, in my own opinion; thats a direct representation of the common egyptian citizen's VALUE; unfortunately, now 2008 most of the world nations are far ahead of egypt :( , the AVERAGE egyptian citizen production (IF ANY) is near zero, a way or another, and most ppl rely on SMARTNESS to make others money leave to thier pockets...
again, in my own opinion; thats the real problem, average egyptian finds it more financially rewarding to cheat-wise work on others rather than to take the hard line of working and actually producing any thing, perhaps by trial and error, he found REAL work to be WITHOUT reasonable return.
what i want to say is that if an average egyptian doctor makes that funny 380$ a year, thats actually because Maintainence of the health of the avergae egyptian, worht NO more than that ( sorry to say )
its a matter of budget, health service budget; what the GOV cant raise just to cuddle a non producing citizen, one who adds virtually nothing to the national product...
well, so far is my view of the problem, nw what DOCs could do about it ?!
as we already see we; DOCs try to migrate to other countries to treat more Valuable ppl, whom GOvs would allocate much more funds to the health service and Maintainence of those productive units ..
so ... lets work ?!
Thanks again for the lovely blog , topic and posting
Mohamad Abbas
i totally agree with you medo this is indeed a very good point of view.
so we as doctors can stop hoping that our conditions will get better soon, because its the egyptian person who really wants to get better first and to really worth something that the gov will start paying for his treatment. very very good point of view.
Just felt Obliged to answer as i am an Egyptian doctor who Fled his home land leaving his beloved family & life style for some sense of educational ,cultrual & financial upgrade ,i moved downunder (sydney ,prob the most unaffordable city in the world)
Wages in Egy are rediculosly Low ,the 30$ mark is actually a reality after 12 years in school then nearly 7 as a med student ,The private sector is like a mafia family ,u can earn some penuts but if u try to crack the big code ur post grad life will stop ,most of the private clinics are unlicensed cause by Egyptian law u should not open one unless u have ur MD/PHD & every one know that all doctors start to open/work in those ones before being even Qualified in what they do
Certainly there is no medicolegal issues (so it is nearly a paradice for American specialists) but That also have its down side ,Medicolegal system is the one of the main reasons behind the huge advancements made by all specialities in any where on that globe ,U always want to be on top of ur game on Documentation / procedures/ Documentation /safety /Aseptic techniques ,virtually the fear of being sued drives medicine/surgery into the safe efficent green zone Not like the Egyptian system where there is no Control over anything ,No documentation ,No past medical history known (except in good private hospitals/clincs & they are few)
The pay is crap but the medical service is also crap ,everytime i hear about a family member or a friend in hospital (public as well as private) i make sure they are well informed so they dont get ripped Off for the wrong reasons or the right reasons
This for Egyptian doctors so english speaking readers will have some difficulties understanding what is coming in the next couple of lines
Ya ged3an elteb 3andena mazbalah
mafesh 7aga 3edla
Wala ta3leem wala felos wala ay 7aga
rabena ystorha 3ala ahalena
Your article may be a little bit misleading. The figures you stated are correct but it worth to mention that you are talking about the governmental sector in which you get very low salaries, not only doctors but any other profession.
Actually, no one depend on such salaries for living but there are always a private job where you can make a good living (Ofcourse not as in the US but a good ones compared to average incomes in Egypt.
The system in Egypt:
- You must have a job in the public sector (For many reasons: Education, social security,...)
- As a resident,You can get some private work in clinics, private hospitals
- After you get your MD or PhD,You open your own clinic.
Remember: We don't have to care about our expenses unless we are married as in our society, the parents usually take care of all our expenses until we get married (usually after residency)
Thanks much for updating us, do let us know averages of those private sector incomes.
AS MOST OF MY FRIENDS SAID THAT YOUR PARENTS PAY ALL EXPENSES, CAN ANY 1 TELL ME TILL UPTO HOW MUCH TIME WE WILL BE A BURDEN FOR OUR OLD PARENTS....
hard work without money , donot tell me that two thousand or more is sufficient to achieve anything in ur life and at last you will not live as human but animal . just work to eat only.