Doctors have called on Mona Mina to continue as secretary-general of the doctors syndicate.

Mina, the first non-Muslim Brotherhood member to hold the post in decades and the first woman ever, announced on Saturday she would stand down due to divisions within the syndicate's rank and file that had left her unable to perform her role.

Leaders and members of the syndicate on Monday called on Mina to retract her resignation, with many claiming doctors' frustration with government inaction had led them to unfairly shift the blame onto the syndicate.

She has yet to officially submit her resignation, syndicate head Khairy Abdel-Dayem told Al-Ahram Arabic news website,and the board will advise her against the move.

"It's a time when [we] should remain united," he said

Mina, a longtime leftist activist and campaigner for better wages and working conditions, said her resignation was not a reaction to attacks leveled at her from the health ministry, independent doctors and the Muslim Brotherhood, rather it was an "admission of failure in the face of the current impasse."

Disenchanted doctors have undertaken a number of partial strikes since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Doctors have been on a twice-a-week strike since January and have vowed to continue through February. Their longstanding demands include more investment in health care services and higher pay.

"We won’t allow her to leave," second secretary-general Rashwan Shaaban said.

"The solution is that she stays to achieve what doctors elected her for. She must find a strategy to direct their power in the right direction," he added

Mina was voted secretary-general in December after a coalition of non-Brotherhood members won a majority on the syndicate board, breaking the Islamist group's decades-long monopoly.

Following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, his Brotherhood movement lost control of several syndicates in which it had formerly been strong.

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