Egypt's medical graduates to take test before obtaining licence
Mohamed Soliman, , Wednesday 2 Oct 2019
The amended law, effective starting the end of the year, stipulates that graduates of Egyptian medical faculties shall be licensed after mandatory training and passing a test


President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi approved Law 153/2019 on Monday, amending a number of provisions in the law on medicinal practice.

According to the new law, graduates of medicine faculties shall take a test before obtaining their five-year, renewable licence from the Health Ministry. The law is effective starting the end of the year.

The amendments, which the cabinet proposed in 2018, were approved by parliament in March 2019.

Previously, medical graduates obtained their licences after submitting their credentials to the Health Ministry and undergoing a mandatory training at a hospital for a year.

The amended law, however, stipulates that holders of a bachelor's degree in medicine from an Egyptian university after a six-year study period are required to spend a year training at a hospital to be eligible for registration as physicians with the Health Ministry.

Nonetheless, the mandatory training period is a year longer for medical graduates who obtained their degrees after a five-year study period. Also eligible for registration are graduates holding a foreign degree equivalent to the degree granted at Egyptian medicine faculties.

According to the amendments, the criteria, requirements, and conditions of the test will be stated by a ministerial committee headed by the health minister and with membership of representatives of concerned bodies.

Ehab Taher, a board member of the Doctors Syndicate, said the mandatory exam to obtain a medical licence gave the impression the certificates of medical universities were not accounted for.

He noted the new exams should be restricted to graduates who obtained their medical degrees abroad and wanted to practise medicine in Egypt.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/352041.aspx