Lack of retention of Egyptian doctors is a crucial issue at stake. Investigating the roots of the problem necessitates an extensive situation analysis of doctors’ working environment and conditions, which touches upon other Health System Building Blocks, like Health Financing, Governance and Leadership, Access to Medicines and Service Delivery. Defects in mentioned building blocks mean less incentives for doctors retention in the public sector and, arguably, the country. This is why a critical review of these different aspects, from the doctors’ point of view, will shed light on existing work environments and will reveal needed policies to retain Egypt’s “White Army”.

Why was there a need for more doctors in Egypt? What does this tell about the environment in which doctors work? How can this improve? What does the new health insurance system have to offer? And what are the roles of other stakeholders? The COVID19 Pandemic is an opportunity to rethink the Egyptian Health System. This is an attempt to give a clearer picture about doctors in Egypt.

The aim of this paper is to initiate a conversation between stakeholders in order to find different pathways to improve conditions for Egyptian doctors. It includes extensive desk review and focus interviews with key informants and doctors, who are the center of the paper, to deepen the analysis and verify findings.