232K critical condition patients on waiting lists undergo surgeries

CAIRO - 11 September 2019: Since its launching last year, the initiative aimed at treating all critical condition patients on waiting lists free of charge resulted in carrying out 232,633 surgeries, the government announced on Wednesday.

The breakdown is 103,643 heart catheterizations, 16,932 heart surgeries, 9,307 neurosurgeries, 10,350 bone surgeries, 75,040 eye surgeries, 11,566 cancer surgeries, 169 kidney transplantation surgeries, 227 liver transplantation surgeries, and 1,632 cochlear implant surgeries. Also, 3,767 patients have been benefiting from free pharmacotherapy.

Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed issued a decree in March to redistribute the number of surgeries allocated to each hospital taking part in the initiative. Those include hospitals affiliated with the Police, the Armed Forces and NGOs, the International Medical Center, Wadi Al Nile Hospital, and specialized hospitals. Once the health insurance hospitals are renovated, they will be part of the initiative.

The move is expected to inhibit the build-up of other waiting lists, particularly those pertinent to open heart surgeries, heart catheterizations, and eye surgeries. The minister also instructed the committee in charge to follow up with the patients who are on waiting lists but did not seek treatment at the designated hospitals.

The ministry is also redistributing patients among governorates so that patients from crowded governorates receive treatment in nearby less condensed ones. The costs of transportation will be covered by the charity NGOs Al Orman, and Zakat and Sadakat House. In parallel, the ministry is expanding the capacity of public hospitals to accommodate more patients.

The ministry has provided treatment for 650,000 patients within the “100 million healthy lives” campaign which has taken place over 150 days. Forty-five million citizens have been screened in all 27 governorates. Since the third phase kicked off on March 1, 14,037,422 citizens have been screened until present.