The Health Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives (HoR) during its meeting today approved the increase of allowance for medical professions risks.
Today sitting was headed by Representative Essam Al-Qadi, deputy-chair of the committee.
Over its meeting, lawmakers discussed a draft law submitted by the government to amend some provisions of the law regulating the affairs of members of the medical professions working in the bodies affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Population.
The draft doesn't include the addressees of special laws and regulations comes under Resolution No. 14 of 2014.
It extends the tenure of medical members and establishes a compensation fund for them to cope with profession risks.
This comes in responding to decisions of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to support the medical crews, as a sign of appreciation of their role and efforts as the first line of defense in the face of the Coronavirus crisis.
The committee renamed the so-called allowance for the medical professions to become "allowance for medical professions risk" instead of "allowance for infection risks" which came in the text of the draft law presented by the government.
The committee approved the allowance categories as stated in the draft law as follows:
EGP 1225 pounds for doctors, EGP 875 pounds for dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, and EGP physiotherapists, 790 for nursing professionals, chemists, and physicists, and 700 pounds for technical diplomas for nursing technicians and health technicians.
Representative Ayman Abu El-Ela, a member of the Health Committee, suggested equality between the allowance of physicians and pharmacists.
Ahmed Saeed, representative of the Ministry of Finance, rejected the proposal as a result of the matter being linked to certain categories with the original law, and an increase of about 75% was added to each category and thus the amendment of the categories.
He also stuck to the same allowance that came with the government bill, Allowance for the risks of infection.
He indicated that changing the name has certain legal consequences, especially that some doctors have filed lawsuits with court regarding the infection allowance and won them.
This proposal was rejected by the Health Committee and voted in favor of changing the name for Medical professionals' risks
Representative Abdel-Fattah Mohamed, Secretary of the Workforce Committee, demanded to include the allowances of the medical professions, the category of hospital workers, as they exposed to the same risks.
He said that doctors face more dangers but workers also need support, especially because they are exposed to great risks.
However, Essam Al-Qadi, deputy-chair of the Health Affairs Committee, said that this matter can be considered in another legislative amendment.
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