Dr. Mona Mina (Photo: Dr Mona Mina Twitter account)
The secretary-general of Egypt's Doctors Syndicate, Mona Mina, withdrew Friday her resignation.
Mina, in a post on Facebook, attributed the change of heart to a fruitful syndicate meeting.
"After the beautiful decisions taken today … I can say that the 'army' I have called for in my resignation has started to form. Thus I had to retract my resignation and join the doctors' army, which has fateful battles to fight," the statement read.
The Friday meeting of the syndicate's general assembly, attended by around 400 members, decided to continue with a doctors' strike and discussed the possibility of a mass resignation campaign for doctors employed by the health ministry.
They have also decided to refer Health Minister Maha El-Rabat to a syndicate ethics committee and demanded she be expelled from the syndicate for taking action against striking doctors.
Mina initially presented her resignation citing divisions within the syndicate's rank and file that had left her unable to perform her role.
Leaders and members of the syndicate called on Mina to retract her resignation, with many claiming doctors' frustration with government inaction had led them to unfairly shift blame onto the syndicate officials.
Mina's resignation was not accepted by the syndicate's board.
Egypt's 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. Their longstanding demands include more investment in healthcare services and higher pay. They decided on Friday to continue with their strike in an open-ended manner.
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