More than 2,000 children with blood disorders in Matrouh governorate have been unable to obtain their medication from the local Health Insurance branch since May because the governorate’s only specialist consultant has stopped coming to examine patients and set their doses, according to local and medical sources who spoke to Al Manassa.
The crisis reflects a broader shortage of specialized doctors in the border governorate, compounded by weak financial incentives that make it difficult to attract specialists or train resident doctors to fill the gaps, a senior medical source at the Health Insurance branch told Al Manassa.
The source, who requested anonymity, said Matrouh relies entirely on a single pediatric hematology consultant from Alexandria University, who normally visits the Health Insurance branch once a month to examine children and follow up on their cases.
“But because of her work as a university professor, she has not been able to come to the governorate branch since May,” the source said. “That has prevented the branch from dispensing medication to the children and forced them to go to the Alexandria branch for examinations and their doses.”
The crisis has left hundreds of families with two costly options: make the roughly 300-kilometer trip to Alexandria with their sick and exhausted children for examinations and treatment, or pay for the medication themselves at private pharmacies.
Health Insurance requires patients to be examined by a doctor who prescribes the treatment and dosage before medication can be dispensed.
Amin Ibrahim, whose two children have thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder affecting hemoglobin production, chose to buy their medication from private pharmacies for as much as 8,000 Egyptian pounds ($157) a month rather than risk traveling to Alexandria.
“The medication is already available in the Health Insurance warehouses in Matrouh, but the system won’t allow it to be dispensed without the consultant’s signature,” Ibrahim told Al Manassa. He said he preferred to bear the steep cost rather than make the difficult trip to Alexandria with his two children and risk not seeing the doctor.
He said relying on a single doctor who visits the governorate just one day a month poses a serious risk to the children’s lives if any of them suffer sudden complications, leaving families without specialized medical care for the rest of the month.
The senior Health Insurance source acknowledged that the problem predates the consultant’s latest absence and stems from the difficulty of finding hematology specialists in the first place. “The branch contacted several doctors to provide the service, but the shortage of specialists and the low pay prevent that. Consultants receive only 300 to 500 pounds (about $6 to $9) per visit, even though the doctor spends a full day traveling and examines about 160 children.”
The source said the Matrouh governor must intervene to provide an “exceptional incentive package” that includes meaningful financial rewards as well as logistical support, including safe transportation and suitable accommodation, to encourage consultants to work in the governorate.
The shortage is not limited to hematology consultants, the source said. The branch also faces a severe shortage of junior medical staff. The latest round of residency placements failed to close the gap, and no newly assigned doctors arrived. A shortage of pharmacists has also forced the branch to enlist science graduates to provide some support services.
According to World Health Organization data for 2023, Egypt has a physician density of 11.8 doctors per 10,000 people. Statistics from its Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office show Egypt ranks below Sudan (25.0) and Tunisia (13.2) and above Iraq (10.1), Morocco (8.7), and Yemen (1.1).
Following families’ complaints about the consultant’s absence, the Matrouh Health Insurance branch prepared a detailed explanatory memo and submitted it to the authority’s leadership on Tuesday.
The memo proposes exempting children with blood disorders in the governorate from the current system by allowing them to receive six months of treatment at a time and see the consultant only once every six months to adjust doses based on periodic tests, according to the source.
The branch believes the proposal would ensure children continue receiving their medication without interruption and reduce the burden of repeated travel on families until a long-term solution is found to the shortage of consultants in the border governorate.
