AMMAN — Nearly 100 doctors working for state-run
medical institutions called for the dismissal of
Minister of Health Firas Al-Hawari, accusing him of ignoring their demands to advance their career
status and allegedly favoring their peers in the private sector.
اضافة اعلان
The noisy, but peaceful sit-in staged outside the
Professional Associations Complex on Saturday also pointed the finger at the
Jordan Medical Association (JMA), accusing the association it of “blind bias”
towards Hawari.
Abdullah Al-Matarneh, a doctor who led the sit-in,
pointed to the absence of a JMA representative as being proof of its leaning
towards Hawari.
Matarneh said dozens of doctors working for
state-run medical centers, including hospitals and clinics, are suffering as a
result of their demands being ignored.
“The minister leans towards the private sector,”
Matarneh attested in an interview with
Jordan News.
“He disrupted a practical proposal initiated by the
former Minister of Health, Natheir Obeidat, to have doctors working in the
public sector get the Jordanian equivalence to certificates obtained from
medical boards abroad,” Matarneh said.
He said doctors
may escalate their protest by taking their demands up to His Majesty King
Abdullah to have him “intercede and withdraw the draft law, which is bound to
destroy Jordanian doctors working in the public sector, and at the Ministry of
Health”.
The Ministry of
Health declined comment, but referred all press queries to the
Jordan Medical Council (JMC), a body dedicated to training doctors and rehabilitating
specialists and general practitioners through the implementation of scientific
programs.
Mohammad Al-Abdallat, JMC secretary-general, told
Jordan
News that the ministry would not comment as it awaits the Parliament’s
amendments to JMC law, some parts of it are related to the doctors’ demands.
“The draft amendments are subject to discussion, and
are presently with the Health Committee in the Lower House,” he said.
He explained that the draft bill stipulates
“allowing those who hold medical certificates from a non-Jordanian university
in a specific specialty to practice the profession, provided they worked in the
country of graduation for three years.”
Abdallat argued that the same legislation applies to
Jordanians who graduated from local universities.
Matarneh, one of the protesting doctors, said the
draft amendments to the JMC law are “unfair.”
He claimed that Hawari told one of the meetings with
doctors seeking Jordanian medical board equivalence to their certificates —
mostly obtained from eastern European universities — that their demand “will
only serve colleagues who have certificates from America”.
Matarneh explained that doctors who obtain a foreign
board certificate from countries other than the US “return to Jordan as soon as
their studies are over”, which does not qualify them to practice the profession
in the Kingdom.
Matarneh said that at least 94 doctors are suffering
as a result of the refusal of the certificate equivalency.
He said that ex-minister Obeidat had formed a
committee to map out a solution to the plight of the doctors, but that Hawari
allegedly “did not approve” his predecessor’s plan.
Ahmed Odeh, a vice president of the Association of
Certificate Holders from Abroad, told
Jordan News the protesting
doctors’ demand is “legitimate, and we support it.”
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