Two resident doctors in Algeria have died in quick succession in what colleagues say are emblematic of the chronic overwork, understaffing and inadequate conditions inside the country's public hospitals — deaths that have reignited a long-running dispute between the medical community and the authorities.
Dr Aymen Badis, a resident neurosurgeon at the Frantz Fanon Hospital in Blida, died of a heart attack after completing a 24-hour on-call shift.
Days later, a resident anaesthesiologist died while working at the Mohamed Lamine Debaghine University Hospital in Bab El Oued, a neighbourhood of Algiers.
Colleagues posted on social media attributing her death to exhaustion and intense working conditions.
Algeria's health ministry denied she was on an overnight shift at the time of her death. The denial drew further condemnation from within the medical community, who said it sidestepped the underlying issue of accumulated professional pressure.
