Egyptian doctors up in arms over governor's 'rudeness'

Medical professionals were shocked this week to see footage of the Governor of Giza, Khalid al-Adly, telling a doctor: "Take your hands out your pockets when you speak to me," while on an unannounced inspection of a hospital in the town of Kerdasa, near Cairo.

That day I had to see 108 patients, I'm not going to do that while I'm standing up - Dr Hussien al-Naggar

In return, doctors have launched a campaign, "Where would you like me put them?" on Facebook, uploading pictures of themselves with their hands in their pockets in an act of defiance against Adly.

The doctor in the video, Hussien al-Naggar, phoned into a local TV station to explain what had happed and that no one had informed him of the governor’s visit.

"You can't just storm into a doctor's office uninvited with cameramen, there were patients in my office - this blatantly goes against patient confidentiality," the doctor said.

Naggar said the governor become angry when he saw an elderly patient standing in his office while the doctor was sitting in a chair with his legs crossed.

"That day I had to see 108 patients, I'm not going to do that while I'm standing up. The reason there are no chairs for patients is because of his failure to provide us with the money to buy them chairs," the doctor said.

The head of the Egyptian doctors' syndicate, Dr Mona Mina, has called for the governor to make a public apology to the doctor.

Egyptian doctors are paid on average around $200 a month and have to deal with extremely overcrowded and underfunded facilities.

This is not the first time an official's publicity stunts have gone wrong. In June, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab made a surprise visit to a Cairo hospital - only to be shocked when he found the facilities had stray cats roaming around and second-hand goods on sale.

An anonymous group of doctors launched a Facebook page to mock the prime minister's surprise with images of snakes, cats, rats and sheep roaming inside state-run hospitals.

Governor Adly has responded to the recent uproar over his actions, telling local media: "I don't want to respond because I don't want to blow this whole situation out of proportion."