Egypt : Complete Profile - What is GIS - World Health Organization

Health Systems Profile- Egypt Regional Health Systems Observatory- EMRO
However, the trend is of a far faster growth in the size of the health workforce (55%)
than in the growth of the population (10%).
The physician population ratio of 2.1 per 1,000 population in 1997 had increased by 5%
to 2.2 per 1000 population in 2001. It was considered high in comparison to other
countries in 1997. The ratio is also high when workload is taken into account. Using the
number of beds in Egypt (123,671 in 1997 increasing to 143,940 in 2001) as a crude
indicator of workload, there were 1.01 physicians per bed in Egypt in 1997; this ratio
remained constant in 2001. The occupancy rate, quoted elsewhere in this report, of
32%–45% means that there is more than two physicians for every occupied bed. These
figures suggest a substantial excess of physicians in relation to the work that is to be
done. The argument is put forward which claims that the unfilled posts for doctors in
some parts of Egypt indicate an overall shortage of physicians. However, the problem of
shortages of physicians in some areas is an indication of mal-distribution of physicians
rather than of a shortage.
Whilst the number of physicians is high, the overall size of the professional health
workforce is not exceptional. The absence of paramedics and the limited number of
nurses, especially graduate nurses, compensate for the high number of physicians. The
consequence of the structure of the health workforce is that physicians are being used to
do the work normally done by personnel with lower level, but more appropriate, training.
Trends in the size of the health workforce
The figures for the numbers of selected categories of health personnel who are
employed by the MOHP are shown in Table 7.1.3, below.
Table 7.1.3: Staff registered and in post in MOHP plus percentage increase in
difference over 20 years
Category
of health
personnel
Physicians
Dentists
Pharmacists
Graduate
nurses
1982 1990 1995 2002 20 years
Reg. In
post
22,468
3,592
3,230
325
16,121 3,9828
2,814 6,893
2,330 3,615
248 497
Reg. In
post
3,0347
5,577
2,915
334
Reg. In
post
5,2625
6,920
3,603
1,013
3,6965
5,054
2,611
890
Reg. In
post
58,829
7,631
4,345
2,362
40,422
5,770
3,375
1,897
Source: NICHP
A comparison of trends over the last 20 years shows that the gap, as shown in the last
column, between registered and in post has grown marginally year-on-year indicating
that the MOHP continues to lose staff on unpaid leave. These figures are only for the
MOHP and so do not necessarily give a true reflection of the situation in Egypt as a
whole.
Distribution by type of health care provided
The broad categories of health care considered in this section are primary health careers
i.e. staff of Urban Health Centers (UHC), Rural Health Units (RHU) etc. as well as
including preventative staff, curative (i.e. hospital staff) and “high administration” (i.e.
staff employed in the MOHP headquarters).
Increase
(%)
49
1.7
1.3
0.3
1.0